DEATH // SENTENCE: Recent Episodes
DEATH // SENTENCE
A podcast about books for people who don't like books, podcasts or capitalism, but who like extreme metal.
The Chaos Configuration emerges to discuss Missouri Williams' beguiling, frustrating, oppressive, and gorgeous The Vivisectors. A tale of the end of history, the collapse of meaning, how weird gardens are, and a messed up city.Music played:Oh Hiroshima - Broken Sunlight https://ohhiroshima.bandcamp.com/track/broken-sunlight
The long and storied career of Anathema is not just a template of the trajectory of a certain type of metal band but also a massive influence on the lives, minds, and hearts of Langdon and Eden. In this episode, we dive into the ways in which Anathema has changed over time, the power of their music, and the personal impact it has had on us.Music played:Anathema - One Last Goodbye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znnV1XLLEMAnathema - Lightning Song https://anathema.bandcamp.com/track/lightning-song
The door to the Wizard's Tower opens and reveals... An interview with author LJ Pemberton! Witness the process by which she wrote the Dublin Literary Award longlisted Still Alive! Thrill to music by Darkthrone!
Joe Kasabian, who you might know from his memoir The Hooligans of Kandahar, his sci-fi novels and the military history podcast Lions Led by Donkeys joins us to talk about his new book The Highlands Burn, and the responsibility writers have for getting conflict right.Music by Panopticon
Is Elon Musk just a guy who can't post, or is he the avatar of Muskism - a new philosophy for our postliberal age? Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's book Muskism: A Guide For the Perplexed argues the latter, taking us through techno-fascist South Africa to Silicon Valley - and along the way we find out that two of the most insightful critics of technology and neoliberalism know a lot about anime.Music by Neurosis: https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-undying-love-for-a-burning-worldYou too can become meme by joining our Discord (it's free): https://discord.gg/mk928WGds
Langdon and Eden dive into the collapse, tackling Event Factory, the first book from Renee Gladman's Ravicka novels. Meaning disappears, rituals empty of signal, and the malaise of our urban existence is revealed. But also, potentials are exposed, connections are made, and understanding hinted at.Music played:Ordh - Apis Bull https://ordh.bandcamp.com/track/apis-bull
Sports betting, crypto, predictions markets, Buy Now Pay Later, getting a credit card to pay off your credit card - what if we said that isn't even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nihilism and finance? Amin Samman joins us to talk about his book Currency of Nihilism, punk rock, the abyss of meaning that is money and why French poststructuralists are Like That.Music by Warning: https://warningdoom.bandcamp.com/album/rituals-of-shameGive us your money: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentenceHang out with us on Discord (for free!): https://discord.gg/zHBV9qCE
This time around, we go back to the early 20th century to discuss a foundational work of British Weird - The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood! We survey the cultural trends of the 19th and 20th century literary and occult scenes in general, the gripping power of this tight and precise novel, and the feeling of dread and awe so often invoked by the weird.Music played:Cryptic Shift - Hyperspace Topography https://cryptic-shift.bandcamp.com/track/hyperspace-topography-2
All books are bad but Langdon and Eden have stumbled on one that SHOULD have been good but is actually awful - PKD and Roger Zelazny's Deus Irae. Confused theology, mish-mashed desert journeys, and more questions without answers than a church all blend together in a collaboration that should, and almost did, stay unpublished.Music played -Exxûl - Blighted Deity https://productionstso.bandcamp.com/track/blighted-deity
Eden launches into Hiron Ennes' The Works of Vermin, using it as a platform to explore ideas around the potentials and contradictions of living in modern cities. He also discusses the influence of the French Second Empire (yes) on the New Weird, why that period of time holds so much of interest, and sketches an upcoming essay on these ideas.Music played:Pallbearer - The Ghost I Used to Be (2025 Mix) https://pallbearer.bandcamp.com/track/the-ghost-i-used-to-be-2025-mix
Langdon and Eden meet to discuss a smörgåsbord (say it with us) of topics like mental health, the uses of online discourse, and a collection of books they've been reading.Music played:The Holy Pale by Wildhunt https://jawbreakerrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-holy-pale
Eden is joined by friend of the cast Jesse Kohn (The Book of Webs) to talk about Leonora Carrington's beguiling and dense The Stone Door. Unfortunately, this episode is marred by the Brown University and Bondi Beach shootings. A better world is possible. Demand utopia.Music played:The Tea Club - The Bell Ringer https://theteaclub.bandcamp.com/track/the-bell-ringer
Langdon conjures forth the Wizard's Castle once more, this time trapping Branson Reese (HELL WAS FULL, SWAN BOY, Rude Tales of Magic, and more) within its sorcerous corridors. While there, the two discuss what makes jokes funny, the impact of the morality of art, and The Simpsons (among other things).Music played - Yellow Eyes - Brush the Frozen Horse https://yelloweyes.bandcamp.com/track/brush-the-frozen-horse
Hayden Pedigo - Radioactive Dreams https://chatpile.bandcamp.com/track/radioactive-dreams
Naruto run with us to the local picture house to watch a double bill of Ari Aster's Eddington and Zack Cregger's Weapons, with Kayte Terry of the excellent Tender Subject podcast.Music by Umulamahri: https://umulamahri.bandcamp.com/album/learning-the-secrets-of-acid-2
Langdon and Eden discuss the too-often bland and safe nature of science fiction and fantasy before diving in to a work that's anything but, "One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve"! Body horror, familial obsession, and finally being at peace with yourself mix in this arresting and clever novella about a man sawed in half!Music played:Rintrah - Fearful Symmetry https://rintrahmusic.bandcamp.com/track/fearful-symmetryKayo Dot - Oracle By Severed Head https://kayodot.bandcamp.com/track/oracle-by-severed-head
Ishiguro season is done now that we've reached 2022's Klara and the Sun, the heartwarming story of a M3gan learning what it is to love. We also talk about Anime, for Satan.Music by https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/changelings
This time around, Langdon and Eden peer into the world, which is actually many things and not just one (and that's good!)Then, they take a look at Ursula K. Le Guin award nominee, Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon! Weird spaceships, radical politics, interesting AI, and a lot of emotions mix in this short story suite!Music played:Hypomanic Daydream - Dissociative https://hypomanicdaydream.bandcamp.com/track/dissociativeEditrix - The Big E https://editrix.bandcamp.com/track/the-big-e
Langdon and Eden kick things off by asking the important questions: which member of the Friends cast would you follow into battle? They also discuss the inherent futility and horror of war.Then, they tackle Roger Zelazny's weird and feverish Creatures of Light and Darkness, touching on elements of myth, explosive prose, attention to detail, and Zelazny's unfortunate misogyny.Music played:Mathilde - Kepler- 186f https://mathilde-blackmetal.bandcamp.com/track/kepler-186-fImipolex - Martian Blood Mother https://imipolex.bandcamp.com/track/martian-blood-mother
We made it - the podcast's personal favourite Kazuo Ishiguro book, The Buried Giant. It turns out a book about memory and genocide is kind of relevant to the world today, but we set it as part of Ishiguro's grand project of showing how Britain is bad and should sink below the waves.Music by Planning for BurialTheme tune by Caina
Gareth and Eden explore Nisi Shawl's Everfair, a mostly successful attempt at writing better, less racist, and more "complete" historical fiction. Nuclear dirigibles, proto-socialist societies, cool knife-hands, and lots and lots (and lots) of character PoVs mix and mingle with geopolitics and complex racial identities!Music played:Knives - PHD https://knivesnoise.bandcamp.com/track/phd
Eden flies solo on this episode, diving deep into the masterful, subtle, and rich Growing Up Weightless by the criminally under-read and under-recognized John M. Ford. Lunar politics, coming of age, and weird interstellar drives clash in this unique, hard sci-fi bildungsroman!Music played:Changeling - Changeling https://changelingofficial.bandcamp.com/track/changeling
Langdon and Eden kick things off by discussing their favorite Metallica tracks and also how good Metallica really are.Then, they dive into Oliver K. Langmead's "Calypso", a beautiful, if limited, verse novel about terraforming, memory, personhood, and endings.Music played:Slave Agent - Forced to Suffer https://slaveagent.bandcamp.com/track/forced-to-sufferGrails - Silver Bells https://grails.bandcamp.com/track/silver-bells
The Kazuo Ishiguro season continues with maybe his least known, maybe his least liked work: Nocturnes. Sitting between the mega-hit Never Let Me Go and the critical blockbuster The Buried Giant, this book is often overlooked and, maybe, it kind of deserves to be? But first, we talk GAMING - specifically Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, because our woke Marxist schools taught us that everything is a text.Music by Hedvig Mollestad Trio, theme tune by Caina.
Are books... dangerous? A lot of people think so, from Moms For Liberty to the mostly-imaginary internet spectre of the censorious Puriteen. Lyta Gold joins us to talk about which books are most dangerous and which might be able to redeem the act of reading.Theme tune by Caina: https://cainaband.bandcamp.com/Danger is our Patreon's middle name: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Eden and Langdon both exist (maybe) and with this snippet of existence, they discuss the historiography of the Paris Commune on the left and suggest a proper position (empathy) towards its hopes and failures.Then, they discuss the beautiful and problematic "Five Ways to Forgiveness" by Ursula K. Le Guin, a short story suite about slavery, feminism, war and Hain.Music played:Object Unto Earth - Alas I Hop Along https://objectuntoearth.bandcamp.com/track/alas-i-hop-alongCave Sermon - Hopeless Magic https://cavesermon.bandcamp.com/track/hopeless-magic
Olga Tokarczuk's first book since winning the Nobel prize in Literature is deeply feminist folk-horror with more than a little influence from Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Is it just a fun ghost story or a warning about how the Male Loneliness Epidemic(tm) will end in tragedy. More importantly, does Langdon yearn for the production lines?
This time around, Langdon and Eden discuss what can be done in our personal lives, regardless of the potential for a revolution or any feelings of hope and despair.Then, they dive into the mesmerizing verse-prose of Jason Guriel's Forgotten Work, a novel in heroic couplets about the power of music, obsession, cult followings, and sick teleportation technology.Music played:Kyros - Esoterica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQGbHdn_SJ0Max Cooper - The Sun in a Box https://maxcooper.bandcamp.com/track/the-sun-in-a-box-2
One of the greatest fantasy epics of the 21st century ends here, with Alex Pheby's mind-bending Waterblack. We go in-depth into the trilogy and the surprising inspirations behind its central themes. Also, Skibidi Toilet.Music by Homeskin: https://homeskin.bandcamp.com/track/blood-to-diskTheme tune by Caïna: https://cainaband.bandcamp.com/
Ready to get DAMP? Sophie Sleigh-Johnson's Code: Damp explores fucked Anglo vibes through the work of sitcom legend Leonard Rossiter, star of Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.Buy it from Repeater Books here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/code-damp-an-esoteric-guide-to-british-sitcoms/
Y'all ready to get DELEUZIAN? Victoria Brooks' Silicon God is a goopy, rhizomatic book about time mistresses from the future and a bunch of stuff that we definitely can't talk about here.Music by Phrenelith: https://phrenelith.bandcamp.com/album/ashen-womb
Why is Guan Yu so powerful? Which Universal Movie Monster tastes best? How can you get somebody to enjoy Brutal Death Metal? Will Communism win? Our audience has asked all of these questions and many more, and we tackle them all with our trademark professionalism and focus.Music by Wrekmeister HarmoniesTheme tune by Caina.
Langdon is joined in the Wizard's Tower by Kayte Terry of Tender Subject and Jon Greenaway of Horror Vanguard to discuss Robert Eggers' tale of a Dracula trapped in a world he never made, looking for love in all the wrong places.Music by Ambrose Akinmusire
Langdon and Eden tackle linear time and how World War II, and its retellings, fit in with our cultural memories of the past.Then, they dive into the fragmented, gorgeous, and shocking Unknown Language, a tale shifting rapidly between alternative presents, futures, holy wars, love, and violence, all through the inimitable and kaleidoscopic lens of Hildegard von Bingen, Huw Lemmey, Bhanu Kapil and Alice Spawls!Music played:Tides From Nebula - Fearflood https://tidesfromnebulaofficial.bandcamp.com/track/fearflood-2Pale - Almost Transparent Blue https://paleofband.bandcamp.com/track/almost-transparent-blue
Kazuo Ishiguro season keeps on truckin' into 2005's Never Let Me Go, perhaps his most widely read and equally widely loved novels. There are brain-donor clones drawing dank pepes, Ruth being a total b-word and -even though we are 100% anti-worldbuilding- some bad worldbuilding.Music by Skagos: https://skagos.bandcamp.com/album/chariot-sun-blazing
ENTER THE WIZARD'S TOWER with this episode in which we stretch the concept of a 'text' to breaking point by talking about a film- specifically 2024's The Substance. Joined by comedian Jake Flores and Tender Subject host Kayte Terry, will we survive the intricate mind maze of feminist discourse?
This time around, Langdon and Eden dive into the question of geo-political narratives and the stories we tell ourselves, specifically about the "American Century" and it's dubious decline.Then, they dive deep into Oh God, the Sun Goes, the debut novel by David Connor. State of mind, Pynchon-esque misconnections, hazy realities, and the power of the desert, combine into a flawed but highly moving book!Music played:Caelestra - Lightbringer https://caelestra.bandcamp.com/track/lightbringerThe Great Old Ones - Me, the Dreamer https://thegreatoldonessom.bandcamp.com/track/me-the-dreamer
In the early 20th century Henri Bergson was a rockstar of philosophy, able to pack lecture halls and create the first ever traffic jam on Broadway. Today he's virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, and Dr. Emily Herring is aiming to fix that with her book Herald of a Restless World.Music by Lowen: https://lowen.bandcamp.com/album/do-not-go-to-war-with-the-demons-of-mazandaran-2
John Trefry's Massive is 764 pages of the densest post-everything literary noise possible, a monolith that you don't read, you move through. There's absolutely no way to describe it and it's brilliant.Buy it from Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/massiveMusic by Sunrise Patriot Motion: https://sunrisepatriotmotion.bandcamp.com/album/my-father-took-me-hunting-in-the-snow
This time around, Gareth and Eden are joined by Marijam Did to discuss her excellent research into the revolutionary and reactionary potentials, avenues, and practices of the video games industry! The three talk the COVID boom and bust, professionalizing esports as a practice of capitalism, and games under future communism!Music played:Solar Wimp - Enhanced Iconography https://solarwimp.bandcamp.com/track/enhanced-iconography
CW FOR BASICALLY EVERYTHINGCharlene Elsby is one of the most renowned literary horror writers out there right now, and her two most recent books, the novel Violent Faculties (Clash Books) and short story collection (House of Vlad) are both incredibly intelligent and utterly horrific.Music by Gutless: https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/high-impact-violence
This time around, Eden is joined by Kyle Winkler, author of Grasshands and, more recently, the cosmic horror, punk-infused, metal-slinging tale of a biker who refuses to go quietly. They talk violence, revenge, metal as aesthetics, and more!Music played:Dance with the Dead - Neon Cross https://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/track/neon-cross-feat-brandon-saller
Talia Lavin joins us to talk about her new book Wild Faith, on how the Christian Right is taking over America, but also raw milk, cruelty, demons and more. Also we declare Beef on another podcast.Music by MINTTTThe power of Christ compels you to join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Kazuo Ishiguro season keeps on truckin' to 2000's When We Were Orphans. After the divisive The Unconsoled, Kaz' is getting his groove back with this story of a gentleman detective who is so English that his brain doesn't work right.Music by Pig Destroyer and Streetfighter
Ever wanted to live out your worst impulses in America's sweaty armpit? Of course you have, and debut author Jillian Luft knows this. Her book Scumbag Summer is about failing to live up to your potential in Florida and it is glorious.Music by Full of Hell: https://fullofhell.bandcamp.com/album/scraping-the-divineOur Discord has often been called 'The Florida of Discords', and you can access it through our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DeathSentence
Langdon and Eden travel to a future-past where TV hosts bring nations to their knees (hahahah oh god that's just our present) with Norman Spinrad's controversial (and excellent) Bug Jack Barron! But first, they discuss the fading power of debuts, early works, and the role of passion in art!Music played:Excuse - Sworn to the Crimson Oath https://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/track/sworn-to-the-crimson-oathFrozen Crown - War Hearts https://frozencrown.bandcamp.com/track/war-hearts
There are cars, hyperloops, even blimps - but no form of transport is better than the train. Gareth Dennis has been in the rail industry for a decade and hosts the podcast Rail Natter... and has been targeted by sleazy government officials after speaking up about safety. He joins us to talk about why trains are perfect, why hyperloop will never work and what we do to get a transport system that works.Music by SchammaschChugga-chugga choo choo! The join our Patreon train has left the station: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
The Wizard's Tower emerges once more, this time gathering in its clutches Donald Ryan, author of Don Bronco's (Working Title) Shell! Meta-narrative, eggs (sort of), truth (not really), experimentation, and more!Music played:"I Cover the Mountaintop" by Elephant9 https://elephant9band.bandcamp.com/track/i-cover-the-mountaintop
Eden is joined by Adam C. Jones of the Acid Horizon podcast to discuss his upcoming book - The New Flesh: Life and Death in the Data Economy! The two discuss cybernetics, the human as battery, data flows as cybernetics, and the fall and fall of cyberpunk.Music played:Graveyard Addicted by Warpstone https://warpstone.bandcamp.com/track/graveyard-addicted
Langdon and Eden happily return to Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall but first must unhappily return to the ongoing and intensifying genocide in Palestine. They discuss ideas that appear in both the book and our lived experiences of culpability, memory, storytelling, and future imaginaries as well as delay on the subject of hype and attention.Music played:Bedsore - Realm of Eleuterillide https://bedsoredeath.bandcamp.com/track/realm-of-eleuterillideDungeon Crawl - The Arcane Temptation https://dungeoncrawlofficial.bandcamp.com/track/the-arcane-temptation
The Wizard's Tower appears out of the mist once more! This time, Langdon conjures forth Katye Terry of Tender Subjects to dive into The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew Sullivan. Homeliness, horror, DIY, and real estate mix within!Music played:Adorior - "Scavengers of Vengeance" https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/track/scavengers-of-vengeance
Langdon goes into the Wizard's Tower and summons Morgan Giles to discuss the expansive and fantastic The End of August by Yu Miri which Giles translated! Family, memory, loss, betrayal, and war are contained therein!Music played:Floating Points - Vocoderhttps://floatingpoints.bandcamp.com/album/vocoder
It's chaos configuration as Eden, Gareth and Langdon sit down to discuss the...sort of good and very hyped Between Two Fires! And also argue about dark fantasy, Dark Souls, and listen to some sick doom metal.Music played:The Flight of Sleipnir - North https://theflightofsleipnir.bandcamp.com/track/north
On this episode, Langdon and Eden are forced to tackle the so-called "Hegelian E-girl Council" and explain why they suck. While they tackle them. To the ground.Then, they talk about the tantalizing, subtle, and down-right inimitable The West Passage. Weird fantasy, even weirder honey, and the weirdest eldritch beings in the form of Ladies, plus all the occulted, esoteric lore you could crave.Music played:Oh Hiroshima - Swans In A Field https://ohhiroshima.bandcamp.com/track/swans-in-a-fieldPinkish Black - Ashtray Eyeshttps://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/track/ashtray-eyes
In this solo episode, Eden talks about the Arthurian myth and its weird potentialities by covering Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword. Gender-bending, political disorder, and why weird fantasy matters and, of course, sick ass swords and cool mage duels!Eden's essay on the political uses of science fiction: https://www.notthesky.com/posts/essays/the-men-who-sold-the-moon/Eden's essay on The Green Knight: https://www.notthesky.com/posts/essays/the-knight-is-always-greener/Music played:Meer - This Is the End https://meer.bandcamp.com/track/this-is-the-end
In this episode, Langdon and Eden discuss the merits, oddities, and uses of mediocrity before covering a mediocre, but fun, book from an excellent author, Roger Zelazny. Time travel, making fun of Hitler, zen koan martial arts, dinosaurs, and a lot of confused writing!Music played:Lie Heavy - Burn to the Moon https://lieheavy.bandcamp.com/album/burn-to-the-moon
We definitely didn't record this three months ago and only remembered to post this now! Langdon's computer definitely didn't die at the end! Stations of the Tide is DEFINITELY an excellent and weird book and Spring is definitely NOT the best season (that last part is true, actually)!Music played -BIG | BRAVE - I felt a funeral https://bigbrave.bandcamp.com/track/i-felt-a-funeralAnd So I Watch You From Afar - North Coast Megafauna https://asiwyfa.bandcamp.com/track/north-coast-megafauna
In Mobility, Lydia Kiesling really bildungs the heck out of a Roman. Bunny is a foreign-service brat who wants a conventional life and, spoilers, she gets one - but it's a conventional life while the oil industry and American imperialism kills the planet. Music by Orgone.
Imagine The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and It. Okay, imagining that? Okay, now make it gay. Gayer. More gay than that.That's returning guest Gretchen Felker Martin's follow up to the masterful Manhunt.Music from ScarcityFind more half-human Cronenberg creatures on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deathsentence
This time around, Eden is joined by none other than Vajra Chandrasekera, author of The Saint of Bright Doors and Rakesfall! The two discuss time, history, anti-colonial and colonial violence, the legacy of Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka, memory, scale, science fiction and the New Weird as a genre and so much more!Music played:Wormed - PROTOGOD https://wormed.bandcamp.com/track/protogod
This episode is titled FOUR because Langdon used it to talk to Eden about FOUR books. We have read too many books and all the Smart has leaked away. The books range over topics like psychosis, the death of art, idealism, hauntings, and introspection. You know, Death // Sentence things. The books are:The Passion According to GH - Clarice LispectorAgapē Agape - William GaddisThe Water Statues - Fleur JaeggyVertigo - W. G. SebaldMusic played:Niftar - Cosmic Embryogenesis https://niftar.bandcamp.com/track/cosmic-embryogenesis
What if the real horror story didn't involve skeletons and boggarts and whatnot... what if the real horror was your boss? There is probably more to returning guest Jon Greenaway's book Capitalism: A Horror Story than that, but we mostly talk about how sick the Saw films were.Music by Valerian Swing
After 1989's masterpiece Remains of the Day made him a superstar, Kazuo Ishiguro returned in 1995 with the baffling, divisive The Unconsoled. James Wood said that it created a 'new category of badness' and... we kind of agree.Music by Tribulation and Krallice.
We're here at last - Langdon's journey through the work of Kazuo Ishiguro reaches one of his greatest novels and perhaps of the greatest novels of the past fifty years, Remains of the Day. Music by Enslaved.Would it please sir to visit our Patreon? https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Langdon and Eden cover the weird, gothic, Catholic-horror, and unsettling Woodworm by Layla Martinez. But first, they do the unthinkable and wade into the discourse around Litvrgy. There, they discuss theosophy, the limitations and pitfalls of Litvrgy's ideas, but also the vicious instinct of the dogpile and the vociferous cycle of discourse.Music played:Vojdi - Godspeed https://vojdi.bandcamp.com/track/godspeedREZN - Indigo https://rezzzn.bandcamp.com/track/indigo
Elle Nash is back on the show to talk about her new book of bodies, babies and bugs, Deliver Me. We talk about parenting, YouTube, the life of a writer and making it in literature in the 2020s.Music by WinterfyllethAll of our Patrons are our babies, and you can join them here to get access to our Discord and hours of bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
That's right, we have decided to open up the terrible portal called "The Internet" and ask our listeners some questions! They cover topics like non-metal music we like, books we wouldn't recommend, shows we would undo or prevent, and all sorts of other negations, recommendations, and inquiries.If you'd like to join us on Discord, we're here: https://discord.gg/ZNefUes85F. If you'd like to support us on Patreon, we're here: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence.Music played:Necry Talkie - Hokujouno Susume https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l-qw9yRFOAAndrea von Kampen - Robin https://andreavonkampen.bandcamp.com/track/sister-moon
Ve believe in nothing Lebowski. Gareth has been trying to get Ray Brassier's Nihil Unbound since it came out, and in this episode he enlists Langdon to explain it to him. Will they take the Enlightenment to its ultimate conclusion? Will they understand the world through various oozes and gels? Will there be digressions? Yes.CW for discussion of suicide.Music by Ulcerate.
Spencer Sunshine joins us to talk about a book that is as cheery as his name suggests: it has Nazis, Industrial Music, Child Prnography, Charles Manson, Neo-folk, Black Metal, Atmwaffen. It appears that the edgy Feral House guys of the 80s and 90s weren't ironic Nazis - they were Nazi Nazis, and Spencer has the receipts.
What if the way we interact with art is like a parasite inside of it's host? We talk to A.V Marraccini about her genre-hopping, dare we say Deleuzian work of critical theory/autofiction/memoir/manifesto We The Parasites.Music by Thou
Vampires are having a bit of a moment, and the best book in the current wave is Genevieve Jagger's Fragile Animals, a literary maybe-vampire story set in Scotland. We talk about why vampires are back, Catholicism, trauma and the best vampire films (Near Dark and The Only Lovers Left Alive).Music by Glassing and Inter Arma
Eden sits down with the non-fictional representative of the book of webs, Jesse Kohn, to talk about the weird, beguiling, and bubbling Love Chronicles of the Octopodes by Karen An-hwei Lee! Gene editing, Emily Dickinson, internal monologue, cosmic adventures, the Moon personified, and more whirl in this unique and scintillating book!Music played -TWRP - Online (feat. Tom Cardy & Montaigne) https://twrp.bandcamp.com/track/online-feat-tom-cardy-montaigne
In honor of the world-ending eclipse that's scheduled for today, Gareth and Eden sit down to tackle Sven Holm's Termush! The novel explores an atomic post-apocalypse and the parasitic, depraved, neurotic, and straight up weird well-to-do people who try to survive it. The two tackle ideas of middle class violence and manners, radiation and climate change, cooperation vs. selfish survival, and elite panic!Music played:Savage Oath - Blood For the King https://savageoath.bandcamp.com/track/blood-for-the-king
Ernst Bloch is probably going to be unknown to many listeners, but, according to Horror Vanguard's Jon Greenaway, he's one of the most overlooked and important philosophers of the 20th century. We talk about what Utopia means and what it can mean now that it seems further away than ever.Music by Necrot.
What if nasty commoners were going around breaking all the nice people's art? What if we've been getting morality all wrong? We consider all this and more when talking about Kay Dick's rediscovered masterpiece They.Music by Sleepyime Gorilla Museum: https://sleepytimegorillamuseum1.bandcamp.com/album/of-the-last-human-being
What if everything you were taught about Neoliberalism was wrong? What if it's not a free-market free-for-all but as tightly controlled as any planned economy? Grace Blakeley joins us to discuss her new book about this, why everything is so expensive, where all the money went and what we can do about it.Music by Full of Hell.
Langdon talks to Ian Cory, former editor-in-chief of the almighty Invisible Oranges blog and now lead of genre-agnostic (but generally heavy) band Lamniforms.
We're 'mad for it' on this episode! And by 'mad for it' we mean mad about how Manchester, the city where capitalism and communism were invented, has turned into a nightmare of hotdesking 'spaces', dumb concept bars that last two weeks and towers to store insufferable yuppies. Isaac Rose is here to talk about his new book The Rentier City: Manchester And The Making Of The Neoliberal Metropolis and what has happened to this once-adequate city.Music by Genital Shame.Join our Patreon community and get an invite to our Discord, where you can ask us questions about things: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
It's a very chipper and uplifting episode, as Langdon and Eden tackle the question of revolutionary optimism, the role of hope (or lack thereof) in revolutionary politics, and the question of "doomerism".Then, they dive deep into a workplace novel unlike any other, the incisive, empathic, and deeply sad Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind. Dreams, quotas, debt, rent, and monsters mix and clash as they tear the protagonist's (and our) lives apart.Also, join us on Discord - https://discord.gg/A2RXQXmtrqMusic played:Wishbone Ash - Throw Down the Sword https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-BHRQrMgloWishbone Ash - The Pilgrim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoCnt-yP6_o
This time around, Langdon and Eden talk about how the Internet is dead, actually, and who has killed it. Then, they stay on the topic of demise by diving into Nicole Kornher-Stace's Archivist Wasp, a weird and twisted exploration of death, the afterlife, and trying your best.Music played:Vitriol - Locked in Thine Frothing Wisdom https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/track/locked-in-thine-frothing-wisdomChapel of Disease - A Death Though No Losshttps://chapelofdisease.bandcamp.com/track/a-death-though-no-loss
Josie Riesman joins us to talk about her book on Vince McMahon, the head of the WWE and arguably the creator of modern wrestling, who is now undergoing a long-overdue downfall after certain allegations came to light. Music by Darkspace: https://darkspace.bandcamp.com/I'm sure you'd like a tasty beer to go with this episode - give the cooperatively run, community-owened Lacada Brewery from Portrush, Northern Ireland a go: https://www.lacadabrewery.com/
On this solo episode, Eden kicks off a series looking at a new format for Death // Sentence - the science fiction poem! He does it by diving deep into two fine examples of the format, Aniara and Deep Wheel Orcadia, focusing on themes of language, translation, belonging, deep space, and religiosity!Music played:Ranges - The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune https://ranges.bandcamp.com/track/i-the-slings-and-arrows-of-outrageous-fortune
The singular entity known as Langdon/Eden records a solo episode continuing the long-promised series on Kazuo Ishiguro. This time around, they tackle "An Artist of the Floating World", Ishiguro's second novel and his attempt to tackle post-WWII Japan, masculinity, old age, honor, shame, and more!Music played: Jesus i betong by Cortex https://heartworkrecords.bandcamp.com/track/jesus-i-betong
This time around, Langdon and Eden explore the shadowy and religious urbanity of The Saint of Bright Doors, a fantasy book about knowledge, imperialism, and violence. But first, they talk about the shadow urbanity of the United States of America and Langdon's trans-dimensional adventures with Power Wash Simulator (yes).Music played:Pessimystic - Burnt Offering https://pessimysticofficial.bandcamp.com/track/burnt-offeringBull of Apis Bull of Bronze - Ekstasis, Enstasis, and The Fractal Ouroboros https://bullofapisbullofbronze.bandcamp.com/track/ekstasis-enstasis-and-the-fractal-ouroboros
Why aren't books hitting like they used to? Partly it's because of how they're sold, Dan Sinykin says in Big Fiction. We talk about how everyone from Cormac McCarthy to Stephen King and the Million Little Pieces guy explains the Conglomeration Era of fiction.Music by Fawn Limbs & Nadja and Panopticon.Theme tune by Caina.
Matt McManus is one of the most perceptive critics of the conservative movement out there, and in The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide on Egalitarian Modernity he takes them on their own terms, reading major figures from Socrates to Burke, Hegel, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche to find what links them.Music by Rosa Faenskap and Afterbirth
On this episode, Adam and Craig of the Acid Horizon podcast join Eden to discuss their new book, "Anti-Oculus: A Philosophy of Escape". The three dive deep into cybernetics, the blindness of the Israeli genocidal apparatus, what it means to control and be controlled, pathways of escape, and how to write good introductions to books.Music played:Exulansis - Overtures of Uprising https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/overtures-of-uprising
Langdon and Eden sink deep into M. John Harrison's masterful, erudite, oppressive, and creepy "The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again"! The two discuss the fading landscape of England, London's dire straits, the numbing reality of the Midlands, forests, ponds, disappearing women, post-modernism, and more. But first, they critique the very current and relevant Game of Thrones and, by way of it, all of fantasy as well!Music played:Xoth - Map to the Stars, Monuments to the Ancients https://xoth.bandcamp.com/track/map-to-the-stars-monument-to-the-ancientsFlesh of the Stars - Unseen https://fleshofthestars.bandcamp.com/track/unseen
Highly aerodynamic tech investor Marc Andreessen has written a 'Techno Optimist Manifesto' that cites arch-edgelord dork Nick Land as a 'Patron Saint of Techno Optimism'. Has he read Nick Land? Sean of the Wyrd Signal podcast and I conclude no, he hasn't, and in doing so we talk about Land's ideas, Martin Heidegger, Degrowth, Dystopia and The Meg.Music by MARTHE and Nothing/Full of Hell
This time around, Langdon and Eden begin by talking about literary and epistemological bewilderment before pivoting to the role of knowledge, narrative, and "neutral" understanding in the Palestinian conflict. Free Palestine!Then, continuing the theme of confusion, they tackle the wonderfully beguiling "the book of webs" by Jesse Kohn a fragmented dream journal of a book which offers an option of resistance through weird logic.Music played - Stortregn - Omega Axiom https://stortregn.bandcamp.com/track/omega-axiomWoe - Distant Epitaphs https://woeunholy.bandcamp.com/track/distant-epitaphs
Eden returns and is joined by his compatriot, Langdon, who is definitely not a robot! The two start off by discussing the disappearance acts of The Twin Towers, Jesus Christ, and power metal (yeah) before diving into what is arguably Michael Moorcock's weirdest iteration of the Eternal Champion cycle, The Dancers at the End of Time!Music played:Mohini Dey - First Food Then You https://mohinidey.bandcamp.com/track/first-food-then-youSprain - Margin for Error https://sprain.bandcamp.com/track/margin-for-error
A writer wins a prize but the prize is a UFO and there's a spider-deer hybrid and a time-travelling playwright and- Isabel Waidner's new book is a trip, but it's not just weird for the sake of weird - there's a social critique there, which we talk about on this show, which includes new music by Ragana and Tomb Mold.Be a deer and subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
In 2020 Eliza Clark's debut Boy Parts absolutely blew up. Now she's back and, folks, Penance is even better - twistier, deeper, overall more toothsome than its predecessor. We talk to Eliza about fanfic, true crime, the internet and the TV adaptation of Boy Parts that we've all been hoping for.
Music by Agriculture.
Commissar of Enlightenment Graham Jones joins the boys to talk about his new book Red Enlightenment, the nature of spirituality, whether communism is a religion and whether we should do a spin-off podcast about riddles and tricks.
Music by Radiant Knife and Baroness.
That's right, this time around, Eden, Langdon and Gareth kick off D//S's series of episodes on The Eternal Champion by covering the so-bad-it's-actually-good origin story in Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock! Swords clash, vampires (maybe) do their thing, and the English are mocked several times!
Music played:
Tanith - Snow Tiger https://tanithnyc.bandcamp.com/track/snow-tiger
This time around, Langdon has been colonized by The Mold™, and Eden revisits the issues of identity politics, tracking your consumption of art, and killing the spreadsheet inside our heads!Then, they're both colonized by The Wet™ while discussing Andrew F. Sullivan's excellent "The Marigold", a horror novel about the blood price we pay to cities, to capitalism, to each other, and, finally, tragically, to ourselves.Music played:Soulkeeper - Time Out of Mind https://soulkeepercult.bandcamp.com/track/time-out-of-mindVictory Over the Sun -The Gold of Having Nothing https://votsband.bandcamp.com/track/the-gold-of-having-nothing
Eden is joined by David Burke (https://twitter.com/metal_analysis), who's researching his PhD at Bath Spa University on the unifying thematics of heavy metal culture! The two discuss what makes something "so fucking metal, dude", the regressive and progressive politics of metal and excess, its ties to sword & sorcery and fantasy literature in general, Nietzsche, Georges Bataille and The Accursed Share, productive violence, and much more!Music played:Splendor by Nebulae Come Sweet https://nebulaecomesweet.bandcamp.com/track/splendor
A dreaded triumvirate episode looms on the horizon as Gareth, Langdon, and Eden dive into the brutal, incisive, and beautifully written "The Doloriad" by Missouri Williams! Under the guise of a post-apocalypse novel, Williams uses this brilliant book to critique hegemonic epistemology, explore topics like veganism and ableism, and above all deliver a host of dreadful, delightful, mysterious, and essential characters.Music by the incandescent Smoulder https://smoulder.bandcamp.com/album/violent-creed-of-vengeanceAnd the efflorescent Lunar Chamberhttps://listen.20buckspin.com/album/shambhallic-vibrations
This time around, Eden is joined by Abraham Josephine “Josie” Riesman, NYT-bestselling authoress of True Believer:The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, and much else besides.The two dive into Philip K. Dick's legacy, investigating his positions on Judaism, his religious exegesis, what we can learn from his writings about the current (and sorry) state of American culture, our perceptions of our world around us, transness, and more! Seriously, more.
Black metal? Isn't that the genre for nazi edgelords with all the Gene Simmons makeup? Well that's where you're wrong kiddo: Bill Peel has written the definitive guide to how it's surprisngly leftist.Music by Darkthrone and Altar of Plagues.
Langdon and Eden return once again to the vaulted halls of the genius-brain that was Brian Catling. This time around they cover Earwig, a cold and weird story filled with devilish revenge, body horror, killing your abusers, and cats.But first, the two take time to drive a holy stake through the hearts of fools who are trying to do transphobia, but from the left, as they discuss gender, materialism, and social relations.Music played:Trespasser - https://trespasserxvi.bandcamp.com/track/hol-kaustos-or-the-justification-and-affirmation-of-hierarchical-order-by-the-symbolism-of-immolationsCrown Lands - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW9ufgf0ihI
Eden reads one page from Tolkien's Akallabêth (that's right, only one) and discusses themes of memory, myth, Platonism, religion, storytelling, Tolkien's Legendarium , politics, and more on this solo episode!Music played:vvilderness - Nemere, from the beautiful Path: https://vvilderness.bandcamp.com/track/nemereArtwork is Tar-Miriel by Tad Nasmith, please don't sue us the painting is very beautiful.
In this house... we read Free Indirect: The Novel in a Postfictional Age by Timothy Bewes with Jon Greenaway aka also known as TheLitCritGuy. What can a novel do? How can it 'think'? What does this all have to do with posting and low-budget Canadian analog horror? Music by BIG|BRAVE
We finally did it. We tackled 'the Ulysses of Science Fiction', all 600 pages of Samuel R. Delaney's magnum opus Dhalgren. We talk about race, sex, Deleuze, Doctor Who, and the bad compromises queer writers had to make in the seventies.Music by GEL
What will be your job in the Leftist Commune? M. E O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi have written the book of the evergreen Twitter question. and I'm only kind of joking. Everything for Everyone is a fictional oral history of post-revolutionary New York, taking the reader through how life could work without money, the government or even the family.Music by Fvnerals and Cremation Lily.
Dr. Eleanor Janega (also of the We're Not So Different podcast) joins us to discuss her book The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval On Women's Roles in Society. We discuss how Plato and Hippocrates ruined things for everyone, what the average person gets wrong about the Medieval period and what our boy Satan has to do with all of this.Music by Yokai & Kekht Ararkh and Grave Babies
Eden returns with another solo episode, this time diving into the New Weird inflected fantasy of K.J. Bishop's "The Etched City"! God-creators stalk the night, crocodiles prowl the river, gunslingers duel in the streets, and all the while the world unravels before our eyes. Just another day in Ashamoil!Music played:Agriculture - The Circle Chant https://agriculturemusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-circle-chant-3
This episode, Langdon reports on his adjusted power levels while Eden rambles about dying alone in space. Or perhaps building a flourishing community in space? Both? You'll see (it's the first one).Then, we discuss Stepan Chapman's The Troika, potentially one of the most (if not the most) whip-lashing, weird, and exquisitely written books we've covered. Join us as the souls of three poor people mix in purgatory, leading to revelations about fish, squids, brontosaurs, sentient jeeps, human extermination, sorcery, body horror, and more.Music played:Guillame David - Vanir's Legacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSa-ngVZdXY
Tariq Goddard joins us to talk about his new book High John the Conqueror - part police procedural, part folk-horror fantasy. Tariq also happens to be the publisher of Repeater Books, the best leftist press in the entire world, so we have plenty to talk about, including cops, psychedelia, the South West of England and the state of publishing.
On this episode of Death // Sentence, Langdon and Eden kick things off by summoning the worst version of Eden possible - Conservative Eden! He rants on and on about the whiplash reaction to Sad Puppies and the inevitable, and awful, rise of identity politics focused SFF.
Then, the two discuss Jeffrey Ford's The Physiognomy, a World Fantasy Award winning, weird-ass book about corrupted cities, immortality, heaven, time travel (possibly), neurosis, paranoia, fascism, and a protagonist who really, really sucks. No, really. He sucks. Book's great though!
Music played:
Reliqa - The Bearer of Bad News https://reliqa.bandcamp.com/track/the-bearer-of-bad-news-2
God Alone - Kung Fu Treachery https://godalone.bandcamp.com/track/kung-fu-treachery-2
NORMAL ISLAND RIGHT? Britain has been even more NORMAL than usual lately, so we invited Phil Burton-Cartledge on the show to talk about his book Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain. We cover the past, present and hopefully short future of the Tory Party, the hidden motivations of its leading figures and our shared love of White Zombie.
Music by Ripped to Shreds and Lana Del Rabies.
Hark, wary traveler: Today, Langdon ventures out alone to feast, to hunt, to kill. Also they interview a returning Trevor from Putrescine and Ivan from Kosmogyr about their recent split LP DESOLATE TIDES. All being pretty bored of standard interview shapes and topics, the results are more a conversation than drilling into what inspired them to write sick riffs. (The inspiration is that riffs are very sick and it's cool to write sick riffs.)
FEATURED MUSIC: Putrescine - "The Accursed" Kosmogyr - "Ring"
We've got all three of the podcast's Toxic Litbros on the pod today because we want to talk about Susanna Clarke's incredible Piranesi, the long-awaited follow-up to the modern classic Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. We talk Platonism, the Tarot, and a weird Meshuggah concert.
Music by Fliege: https://dasfliege.bandcamp.com/
The Discourse Labyrinth has once again trapped Langdon and Eden! First, they must do battle with online """Leftists""" to defend a Marxist reading of Foucault (while stabbing the actual man repeatedly, luckily he is already dead).
Then, the two dive into the maze of Platonist, reality-bending, weird fantasy that is Alex Pheby's Malarkoi! Talking dogs, gods, ideal realms, time manipulation, and general malarkey abounds.
Music played:
Gods of Eden - Through the Abyss https://godsofeden.bandcamp.com/track/through-the-abyss
Armory - The Hunters from Beyond https://armory417.bandcamp.com/track/the-hunters-from-beyond
To celebrate 3,000 followers on Twitter, Eden sits down for a solo episode exploring Hope Mirrlees' "Lud-In-The-Mist", a forgotten classic of faerie metaphor. The discussion revolves around Mirrlees herself, the undertones of class in the story, and how it further explores tension between city and country, center and periphery, and more.
Music played:
GoGo Penguin - Wave Decay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwlh0QagRM&ab_channel=GoGoPenguinVEVO
Elle Nash is back with another banger: Gag Reflex, a story of eating disorders and nu metal told in Livejournal posts and chatlogs. Along the way we discuss British Niceness, Buddhism, method acting and raves.
Music by Sugar Ray and Soulfly
Langdon and Eden must first do battle with, and slay, the ancient demon known as "comps" by wielding the mighty sword of post-modern Marxism (real). Then, they tackle the unbridled, full-on, max-fury, chrome, battle-ready, forgotten, unsung masterpiece that is David R. Bunch's scathing sci-fi satire, "Moderan"!
Music played:
Parannoul - Beautiful World.
https://parannoul.bandcamp.com/track/beautiful-world
Touccan - Captain Costaud.
https://ripcordrecords.bandcamp.com/track/commandant-costaud
Returning guest Alison Rumfitt (whose book Tell Me I'm Worthless you need to read) is back to get elbow-deep in medieval pee-pee and poo-poo as we immerse ourselves in Ottessa Moshfegh's Lapvona. Is she crypto-fash? A talentless shock artist? A doo-doo obsessed genius? Just a good writer who writes good books? We discuss this and Alison's new book, Morbid Obsessions, writing about the internet and ant genders on this unmissable new episode!
There are more things, but how many more? Let's find out by reading Yara Rodrigues Fowler's There Are More Things, a multi-generational story of queer love and revolution. On the way we discuss London's transportation system, Brazilian politics and millenial sadgirl novels.
Music by Cloud Rat and Gnoll.
We are escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... Space! Unfortunately, it has been corrupted by capitalism. Olga Ravn's book The Employees spun out of a commission to write a few pages to accompany an art installation and went on to be shortlisted for an International Booker.
Music by Tomb Mold and Bekor Qilish
Please report to our Patreon for a mandatory waffle party: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
In Dakota, the twin towers reappear. Inside them Elvis' still-born brother is resurrected. Elsewhere, JFK loses the election and siblings roam the US following their father's elusive, and exhaustive, playlist for a crumbling Union. A DJ croons across the wastes. Reality buckles in the wake of music's death. John Lennon lives. It's Steve Erikson's Shadowbahn!
Before that, Langdon and Eden (remember him?) also talk about how Cool and Also Good™ it is for different types of communists to be absolute dorks and also violent to each other, haha that's definitely not bad!
Music played -
Gospel - S.R.O https://gospel.bandcamp.com/track/s-r-o
Ashenspire - Tragic Heroin https://ashenspire.bandcamp.com/track/tragic-heroin
Foul Tarnished, we have Matt Calquhoun with us to extinguish the meagre flame of your ambition by talking about the games of Hidetaka Miyazaki - Demons Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro and now Elden Ring. We discuss whether these games can really be said to have a politics, the true meaning of nihilism and we solve philosophy by determining that hauntology is when things are old and dialectics is when there is two of something.
Music by Bedsore: https://bedsoredeath.bandcamp.com/album/split
Only a truly maidenless individual wouldn't subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We're joined by one-half of the excellent podcast Twelve Rules for What to talk about their jointly written book The Rise of Ecofascism. We have a wide-ranging conversation that takes in ecofascism's past, present and future and bond over a joint love of Elden Ring.
Buy The Rise of Ecofascism from Polity Books: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-rise-of-ecofascism-climate-change-and-the-far-right--9781509545377
Music by Devil Master
In an episode that's been a long time coming, Langdon and Eden tackle Vancian fantasy, the Dying Earth sub-genre, and how these might be subverted to tell both radical and conservative stories. Works covered (beyond the obvious Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance) include Adventure Time, D&D, Gor, The Dancers at the End of Time, Book of the New Sun, and more!
Music played:
Duel - Children of the Fire https://duel3.bandcamp.com/track/children-of-the-fire
The philosophy world has turned on poor, innocent Freidrich Nietzsche, calling him a 'reactionary' and 'proto-fascist' and 'incel' (probably), but YouTuber Jonas Ceika (aka CCK Philosophy)is here to bring him back, jamming his deeply anti-egalitarian thought into that of Karl Marx, who literally invented being nice. Can he make a convincing case that these two thinkers are compatible? Spoilers: yes.
Music by Wormrot and Holy Fawn.
Transvalue all values by giving us your money to spend on anime swords here: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
This time around, Langdon and Eden dive face first into Samantha Hunt's heart-breaking, magical realist, water drenched "The Seas". They discuss topics like the impact of poverty on the psyche, climate change, the collective and individual trauma of the Iraq War (both of them), femininity, and unrequited love. Oh, but not before discussing yassified Melkor and Sauron fan art. You know, Death // Sentence stuff.
Music played:
Moon Tooth - Carry Me Home https://moontoothny.bandcamp.com/album/phototroph
An Evening Redness - Black Flame at the Edge of the Desert https://transylvaniantapes.bandcamp.com/album/an-evening-redness
We have the indomitable Gretchen Felker-Martin back on the show to talk about her major-publisher debut, the first ever mainstream horror novel by a trans author, Manhunt. We talk about horror, TERFs, the sublime nature of violence, community and Community (the show).
Music by Black Dresses: https://blackdresses.bandcamp.com/album/forget-your-own-face
and The Body: https://thebody.bandcamp.com/album/enemy-of-love
Railed a whack book Feel real bad about it Feel like it might 'say something' about 'late capitalism' Just wanted to create 'content' to 'go viral' Had Phoebe Roy-bae from 10,000 Posts and Masters of Our Domain pods on to talk about it. Still feelin' whack tho.
Music by Sunrot and Mares of Thrace
Eden is back on the solo episode grind, this time covering the beautiful, wonderous, and deco-punk "Radiance" by Catherynne M. Valente. Phantasmagoria on the moon, magnificent space voyages, ruminations on the miracle that is bread, trans-dimensional whales and more!
Featured music:
Dunsmuir - What Manner of Bliss?
https://dunsmuir.bandcamp.com/album/dunsmuir
The best ever death metal and/or literature podcast out of three different countries is talking about John Darnielle's book Devil House, which dissects true crime, storytelling and epistemology itself while still managing to make us cry.
Music by Rolo Tomassi: https://rolotomassi.bandcamp.com/album/where-myth-becomes-memory
And Celeste: https://celestes.bandcamp.com/
Listen to more of the Alpha Throuple of leftist extreme metal literary podcasting on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
A Marxist analytical conversation about the current state of music distribution. Langdon invited RSH, a pop music critic for Billboard as well as a writer at various other venues, to discuss the rift between Spotify and Neil Young. The focus of the conversation is less on the particulars of this specific incident and more on the historical and material conditions that led to the rise of Spotify rooted in musicians not owning the means of production/distribution of their work, an issue that is only further underscored by the recent appearance of HitPiece and their deeply illegal NFT music scam based off the Spotify API. FEATURED MUSIC: King Woman - "Celestial Blues"
This time around, Langdon and Eden dive deep into the early stages of human development, the Enlightenment and our political predicament with Wengrow and Graeber's "The Dawn of Everything"! But first, they take a trip to a more recent time, looking at the rise and fall (and rise) of "dark" progressive music through the lens of Pain of Salvation's current...situation.
Then the conversation turns to the folly of the Enlightenment's rigid perception of history and the meaning of a broader, more playful political imaginary for Marxists/leftists!
Music played:
Lasiodora - Royal Jelly (https://lasiodora.bandcamp.com/track/royal-jelly)
Galaxy - Bright Stars (https://galaxyaus.bandcamp.com/track/bright-stars)
Whoa! Death // Sentence is back, baybee! And so is Gareth! Langdon is also here but Eden is not. What mysteries are revealed with this conjunction, nay, this syzygy? Why, it's the secrets of Alison Rumfitt, author of gothic-horror book "Tell Me I'm Worthless".
What if there was a book so good that not only did we end our hiatus prematurely, but the show's founder came out of retirement for one last job? Tell Me I'm Worthless is a haunted house story where the house is modern England and the ghost is fascism (and the house is a house and the ghost is maybe a dead giant). It's brilliant, and we have the author with us to talk about anime, Marvel movies and the unique terror of living on the rainy TERF island.
Music by Pupil Slicer: https://pupilslicer.bandcamp.com/
And Backxwash: https://backxwash.bandcamp.com/
Buy Tell Me I'm Worthless here: https://www.cipherpress.co.uk/shop/tellmeimworthless
Winged angels fight with cocky birds. Swordsmen plague the land, looking for a lark. A sailor returns, reincarnated as a soldier. Or does he? That's right, it's the fourth, and final, episode of Book of the New Sun!
We did it! We actually did it. This episode wraps up what we both consider to be THE greatest series of science fiction books ever written. We'll ignore the fact that there's a fifth. And, you know, two other series which turn this whole thing in one giant epic. Ignore that.
We're going on a brief hiatus to catch our breaths and we'll then be back. Until then, enjoy!
A wind blows through a cruel city. The mountains sing with rain. Ancient tyrants awaken in their holds and everywhere war and the rumors of war leap between the peaks. It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 3!
It's Sword of the Lictor time baybee, as our very own multiple-Christ, the one and only (hah!) Severian comes closer and closer to more answers and, naturally, more questions. Double-headed tyrants, aliens tumbling backwards through time, and all the giant-on-torturer action that's fit to print!
FEATURED MUSIC Stare - Our Ways Will Not Die https://unholyrub.bandcamp.com/album/ll
The past bubbles up from within forgotten caves. The light that once shined bright now falls and we feel our bodies give way to darkness. Who will save us from our decay? What beast now slouches towards the podcast to be born? It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 2!
After taking a break to allow for Life™ (it, uh, finds a way), Langdon and Eden are back to take the Claw of the Conciliator, the second volume of the Book of the New Sun, head on. How many Severians are there? Yes! Time loops, dimensional corkscrews, space butterflies, oh my!
FEATURED MUSIC
Terminus - Black Swan https://terminusrocks.bandcamp.com/album/the-silent-bell-toll
The future continues to unfold. Swords continue to sing. Prophets continue to roam the land. The past continues to collapse. The present continues to be unintelligible. It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 1!
This time around, Langdon and Eden tackle the first volume of Book of the New Sun - The Shadow of the Torturer. Miracles! Resurrections! How may resurrections? Who knows! At least several! Duels with plants! Spaceships which are buildings. Great stuff. Episode 2 coming soon!
FEATURED MUSIC
The Flight of Sleipnir - Servitude https://theflightofsleipnir.bandcamp.com/album/eventide
At last! The fated prophecy has been completed and the first episode of the Book of the New Sun arrives! Spaceships fly to the forested moon! Swords are wielded in the dark! Time bends like so many swallows in the last light of the day!
Lots of confusing shit is soon to happen so Langdon and Eden do some setup for the next few episodes, diving into Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun.
FEATURED MUSIC:
Gonemage - The Gullying and the Purple Hoax https://gonemage.bandcamp.com/album/mystical-extraction
Smelling faintly of roses and holy words, Eden conjures forth this solo episode. He tackles one of the most beautiful, delicate, and magical books he's read in the last few years, Sofia Samatar's A Stranger in Olondria.
FEATURED MUSIC:
serpentwithfeet - Amir
https://serpentwithfeet.bandcamp.com/album/deacon
On a blazing steed of heat and light, Death // Sentence arrives once again. This time around, Langdon and Eden navigate the post-modern labyrinth that is the Suez Canal stoppage, unravelling the blood-ritual at its core.
Then, they discuss "Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space" by Keller Easterling, a mind-boggling, expansive analysis of how capital uses Free Trade Zones, mobile networks, and standardization to move around the world.
FEATURED MUSIC:
Cirith Ungol - Brutish Manchild https://bit.ly/2PrkPZ6
Boss Keloid - Gentle Clovis https://bosskeloid.bandcamp.com/album/family-the-smiling-thrush
After recovering from falling out of two buildings consecutively, Langdon finally posts the newest episode. In it, Eden and Langdon tackle NFTs, the new psychopoison of the capitalist age, then tackle the psychedelic mindwarp SF/F novel LIGHT by M. John Harrison. FEATURED MUSIC: Steel Bearing Hand - "Command of the Infernal Exarch", Seputus - "The Learned Response"
Steel Bearing Hand - SLAY IN HELL https://steelbearinghand.bandcamp.com/album/slay-in-hell
Seputus - PHANTOM INDIGO https://seputus.bandcamp.com/album/phantom-indigo
On this week's death sentence, Eden and Langdon tackle Suzette Elgin's ambitious linguistic-feminist science fiction novel/project NATIVE TONGUE. But first, they must conquer the United States Stock Market and defeat the evils of reactionary analysis at root within the Gamestop investing push. Eden is transformed into a psychocloud and Langdon contacts six of the seven buddhas. FEATURED MUSIC: Stonehealer - "Into the Spoke of Night", Humavoid - "Aluminum Rain"
Langdon and Eden tackle The Vorrh trilogy by B. Catling, a wild lysergic absinthian literary feast combining shards of magical realism, avant-garde literature, ecstatic spiritualist poetry and prose, anti-colonialism, paganism, fantasy, horror and historical fiction into one spellbinding modern masterwork. But first they must discuss how utterly fucked that coup was, which sucked mondo ass. FEATURED MUSIC: Frozen Soul - "Encased In Ice", The Botanist - "Water"
On this new Death//Sentence Solo Series, Eden explores award-winning author Kij Johnson's AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF BEES, a collection of magical realist fantasy fiction. FEATURED MUSIC: Snooze - "Amicus Pawsterum"
On this episode, Langdon and Eden tackle the universe's most pressing issue: the nature of the Grinch, the contradictions of the Grinchgeist, and the spiritual warfare that fires his burning heart. Additionally, they cover P. Djeli Clark's novella RING SHOUT, Langdon's book of the year, which is a Lovecraftian counter-read interposing the KKK as servants of Lovecraftian darkness and hateful chaos. There's a magic sword and killer politics. FEATURED MUSIC: Tribulation - "Hour of the Wolf", Beaten to Death - "The Dying Egg"
Langdon and Eden do the long-threatened and discuss House of Leaves, both as a cultural object and as a novel, especially as it pertains to literalizing anxiety states. The novel carries both an overwhelming adoration a reciprocal stigma, both of which cloud its functions as an art object. We seek at least in part to dispel that. Discussion of the book starts at 46min. TW: descriptions of anxety attacks, physical violence. FEATURED MUSIC: Ithaca - "Hold Fast Hope" (Thrice cover), Cinder Well - "Our Lady's"
Recovered from Langdon being extremely bad at technology comes an episode long in the making. We actually started prep for this episode over a month ago but, between anxiety breakdowns and, tech issues. BUT: Now we cover the powerful novel THE ONLY GREAT HARMLESS THING by Brooke Bollander, a novel about humanity's history of atavistic self-harm and our abusive relationship with the biology of the ecosystem of the world, as well as the politics of health and the body in the age of COVID, especially as world leaders contract the illness. FEATURED MUSIC: Cryptae - "Cryptic Passage", Enslaved - "Urjotun"
On our newest Death Sentence Solo Series, Eden (@tallesteden) discusses Andrew Krivak's THE BEAR, a heart-wrenching and powerful book that peers deeply into both a human and a naturalist terror. That of grief, of solitude, of love and of the natural world. He mentioned sobbing at the end of the book; prepare for a heavy and real one. FEATURED MUSIC: Amiensus - "A Convocation of Spirits"
On our newest Death Sentence Solo Series, Eden discusses Jeff Noon's series The Nyquist Mysteries. Jeff Noon is a remarkable figure in the field, sitting somewhere between Philip K Dick and Paul Auster; following that analogy, this series functions almost like Noon's own version of what The New York Trilogy by Auster might look like in the hands of a cerebral but still richly pulpy genre writer. FEATURED MUSIC: Xythlia - "Ablation of Subconscious"
Langdon and Eden tackle Becky Chambers' Hugo-nominated novella TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE, a work which grapples with the holocratic and highly mediated communal/social side of science. Meanwhile, on the first half, they discuss two radically different images of the teenager: the Kenosha shooter and the girl who made a smart-than-she-got-credit TikTok about the philosophy of math. TRIGGER WARNING: suicide (0h21m - 0h22m). FEATURED MUSIC: Motorpsycho - "The All Is One", Ulver - "A Thousand Cuts"
A solo episode! Langdon launches a new sub-series working through analysis of all of Kazuo Ishiguro's body of work in chronological order. This time it's his debut, A PALE VIEW OF HILLS (1982), a novel exploring a Japanese woman's grief after losing her eldest daughter to suicide following a move to Britain and the confounding non-response of her youngest daughter who doesn't mourn her sister at all. FEATURED MUSIC: Unleash the Archers - "Legacy"
Langdon and Eden breakdown the glittering poetic beauty of Roger Zelazny's seminal science fiction novel LORD OF LIGHT. But first, we have to talk about shoes that look straight up like ribbed condoms as well as the VP pick for the 2020 election. Spoiler: Electoral leftism in the West is a near systemic impossibility and worth less time than the boots-on-the-ground activism happening all around us. Also, holy shit, those shoes look fucking terrible. FEATURED MUSIC: Primitive Man - "Foul", nug - "Night Shine"
DEATH // SENTENCE returns after a brief hiatus. Between COVID and life changes for our hosts, Gareth has had to step away for the foreseeable future, leaving Langdon to figure out how to run, edit, and host a podcast all on his lonesome. Will Gareth return someday? We will see; the door is certainly open. New cohost Eden Kupermintz, editor-in-chief of Heavy Blog Is Heavy as well as a noted bibliophile, philosophy degree haver and ardent leftist, makes his debut. We talk about Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer and circumnavigation leftist thought. FEATURED MUSIC: Bedsore - "Cauliflower Growth", Sumac - "The Iron Chair"
Returning champion Margaret Killjoy joins us to talk about her incredible, possibly album-of-the-year album as Feminazgul, No Dawn for Men, the uprising across the US, violence and non-violence, guns and living in the woods.
Music by Feminazgul: https://feminazgul.bandcamp.com/album/no-dawn-for-men
And Vulgarite: https://vulgarite.bandcamp.com/releases
Give your money to legal defence funds for protesters, but if you have any left over join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
You're going to thank us for this one. Mordew is acclaimed author Alex Pheby's first foray into fantasy, and it's incredible. Imagine Gormenghast, China Mieville, Bloodborne, Dorohedoro- if it's dark, fantasy and stuff we like then it's an ingredient here. We talk about writing, publishing, Dark Souls, Harry Potter and more.
You can order Mordew here: https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/paperback-shop/mordew
Or join Galley Beggar's subscription service for Mordew and a bunch of other good books, plus treats: https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/subscribe
Music by Paradise Lost: https://paradiselostofficial.bandcamp.com/album/obsidian
WE GOT THOU. Mitch and Bryan from one of the greatest metal acts on the planet join us to discuss pop-punk, coughing, fantasy, comic books and not being super into metal.
Featuring EXCLUSIVE covers of Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath and Prayer to God by Shellac.
Returning guest Michael Seidlinger joins us to talk about his new book Dreams of Being, sushi, wrestling and Meltdown May.
Music by FLUIDS: https://maggotstomp-fluids.bandcamp.com/
And Couch Slut: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/take-a-chance-on-rock-n-roll
Poet Brendan Joyce is on the show to talk about his new chapbook (available here on May 1st: https://gumroad.com/nicetryofficer). We talk about our own experiences of the lockdown and unemployment, poetry under quarantine, the possibilities for resistance AND we come up with a sure-fire way to totally destroy the Orange Orangutan Thief-In-Chief.
Music by Cirith Ungol https://cirithungol.bandcamp.com/
And Katatonia.
Down for a quiet, sad book about maybe or maybe not getting your life together? Yeah you are. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's Starling Days, the follow-up to her critically acclaimed Harmless Like You is a gorgeously written, beautifully observed look at how people survive, and how relationships survive when one party wants out.
Music by Infant Island: https://infantisland.bandcamp.com/album/sepulcher
And ACxDC: https://acxdc.bandcamp.com/album/satan-is-king
Gabriela Herstick (@GabyHerstik) joins us to initiate us into the mysteries of her new book Bewitching the Elements. We learn about witchcraft, the Western Mystery Tradition, the importance of self care in plague times and of course Satan.
Music by Outer Heaven: https://outerheaven.bandcamp.com/ And Archgoat: https://archgoat666.bandcamp.com/
Subscrybe to our enchanting Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We've got our first YA novelist on the show: Emily Duncan is mid-way through her Something Dark and Holy series in Ruthless Gods, and she's already taken the meta-genre to spooky, eldritch places. We sit down with her to talk Final Fantasy 7, the depravity of the Dutch, writing as you go and the words you can't say in metal.
Music by Anaal Nathrakh: https://anaalnathrakh.bandcamp.com/
And Igorr: https://igorrr.bandcamp.com/
And you can hear our voices in your head if you subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Struggle Session's anime correspondent Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) joins us to discuss Q Hayashida's Dorohedoro in both its anime and manga forms. First though, we perform a quick vibe check and eulogize the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Music by Calligram: https://calligram.bandcamp.com/
And Night: https://nightband.bandcamp.com/
I don't want to hit a sore spot, but can we talk about herpes? Writer and Critic Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable)joins us to talk about an obscure but incredible book about queer love and seismic activity by Davey Davis (@k8bushofficial).
You can get The Earthquake Room for free from Tigerbee Press here (but you really should buy it): https://www.tigerbeepress.com/store/p17/the_earthquake_room.html
And you can get Gretchen's own brilliant books about trauma and mechs here: https://gumroad.com/melmoththewanderer
Music by Black Curse: https://blackcurse-svr.bandcamp.com/album/endless-wound
And Allegaeon: https://allegaeon.bandcamp.com/
In Nino Cipri's Finna two co-workers, formerly a couple, have to track down a customer who has gone missing from a Scandinavian big-box store... into the multiverse. We talk about that, dropping acid in Ikea and, naturally, anime.
Music by Pyrrhon and Afterbirth.
Föölow üs on Patreon for mööre exclusive cöntent: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Shannon Strucci (Struggle Session, Critical Bits, YouTube and elsewhere) joins us for a COVID-related reading series followed by Sweet Home, a webcomic about people having to self-isolate because of a virus. This virus turns people into very creative Cronenbergs though.
Music by Mamaleek and Alcest
Follow us from six feet away on our Patreon for exclusive viral content: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Wendy Liu joins us to talk about her journey into the darkness of tech industry and out into the blinding light of leftist critique, with your hosts frequently threatening to parody-satire various tech figures in Call of Duty.
Music by WAKE and Ruins of Beverast
Dan Franklin has literally written the book on heavy metal, taking us from Tony Iommi's fingertips through to modern bands like Oathbreaker and Conjurer. We of course have to perform a full Cred Check by having everybody name the heaviest song ever recorded.
If you were cool you'd support us on Patreon for extra episodes: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We've got Hether Fortune, formerly of Wax Idols and White Lung, on the line from her bunker in Detroit to talk about what Coronavirus means for the music industry, and how independent artists were screwed even before the pandemic.
Music, surprisingly, by Hether Fortune.
You've only got one shot, do not miss your chance to subscribe to our Patreon for bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We're joined by A.M Gittlitz, producer of The Antifada podcast and author of I Want to Believe: Posadism and Left Wing Ufology. After paying tribute to former Vice President Joe Biden (RIP), we talk about the wacky world of J. Posadas: Trotskyite, cult leader, Dolphin-talker-to, meme.
Music by Sweven and Feminazgul.
There is no consent under capitalism - that's the bold tagline slash thesis statement of KM Szpara's Docile, which imagines a future world in which you can eliminate your debt if you let creepy trillionaires do Epstein stuff to you.
Music by Smoulder and Ulver
Become slaves to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
You made us do this.
We read what is officially the worst thing that either of us have ever read: Supermarket, by Bobby Hall aka also known as Logic. There's an insanely predictable plot, crude ethnic stereotypes, mishandled representations of mental illness and a twist you'll see coming not just from a mile off, but from 1999, when Fight Club was released. Cleanup on aisle nine for an absolute stinking heap of crap.
Music by TOMBS and Fluisteraas
We're joined by J.G Michael of the Parallax View podcast to talk about Richard Stanley's The Colour Out of Space, based on HP Lovecraft's short story.
Music by Integrity and Feminazgul
Subscribe to our Patreon why not: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We're back after an extended hiatus, with a new episode interviewing Matt Colquhoun, author of Egress, on Repeater Books. We talk about the aftermath of Mark Fisher's death, his philosophical legacy, and we all collectively groan when Nick Land is mentioned.
Music by Cult of Fire: https://cultoffire.bandcamp.com/album/nirvana and Omerta: https://ihateomerta.bandcamp.com/album/hyperviolence
Give us your money for more episodes: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We got 'em! We scored an interview with Isaac of Blood Incantation, who released what is perhaps the greatest album of the year in Hidden History of the Human Race. We talk about their evolution into proggier sounds, their ideas about history and its relation to human consciousness and we open our hearts to Mizar, King of the Stars.
Give us all of your money so we can give it to Mizar on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
This is the first part of a seven-part series exploring each of the collected trade paperbacks of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and we've got Pete (@PodsidePete) from Podside Picnic (@PodsideP) along for the wild ride.
Music by Obsequiae and Ragana
Support our Patreon and you will actually be an Invisible and get to hang out with cool people and shoot cops: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Ash Grey of Venom Prison is on the line to talk about proper British things, like Brexit, Craig Charles liking your band, playing Glastonbury, rain, being terrified of America and not quite knowing what's going on.
Music by REND: https://rendwithtoothandclaw.bandcamp.com/album/cast-into-their-own-night
And Venom Prison: https://venomprison.bandcamp.com/album/samsara
Give us money to produce relatable Content on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Death Stranding is not a book or a metal, Bring Me The Horizon's contribution to the soundtrack notwithstanding, so why are we talking about it? Because it's Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima's first game since his acrimonious split with the Metal Gear franchise that he's been working on since 1987. It's about being a Deliveroo driver if ghosts were real and could turn you into a bomb.
Music by Blind Guardian.
Subscribe to us on Patreon for more of this sort of thing:
We're joined by Nathalie Olah to talk about her book Steal As Much As You Can, the only book ever written that will make you feel less crazy. It's primarily about the erosion of working-class culture in the UK after the 2008 financial collapse, but it's about so much more, and comes with four handy tips to improve your life and smash capitalism.
Music by Vastum.
Subscribe to our Patreon to learn the fifth tips that will instantly make you do good praxises and never be Owned on line: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
You probably know that Margaret Atwood's The Testaments won half of a Booker Prize, and you definitely know that we have Takes about that. To help us sort through the book's kind of badly handled depiction of misogyny, we have real-life misogyny expert Annie Kelly from the Q-Anon Anonymous podcast to talk about how the real-life He-man Woman Hater's club has evolved since Trump.
Music by Alcest and COFFIN ROT.
If you were an Ally you would support our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We got 'em. The undisputed kings (if they believed in kings) of antifascist Black Metal, Liverpool's Dawn Ray'd. We talk with them about Mr. Blobby, the situation in Syria, castles, Tankies and more.
Music by Tresspasser and Dawn Ray'd.
Subscribe to our Patreon or you're a cop: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We sit down with Hanna Jameson, author of The Last to talk about nuclear war, murder mysteries, the horror of a world without Posting, and her excellent origin story as a writer.
Music by Blood Incantation: https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hidden-history-of-the-human-race
And Botanist: https://verdant-realm-botanist.bandcamp.com/
Subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We get Andy Curtis, the entirety of one-man post-post-post-Black Metal band Caïna, on the line to talk about a little of everything but a lot of high weirdness. We start in unlikely reviews in British tabloids and end up in a bizarre real-life tale of UFOs and poltergeist activity. Strap yourselves in warbrothers, warsisters and nonbinary warpersons... and keep watching the skies!
Music by Caïna: https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-illness
And the prog War of the Worlds soundtrack.
'Beam' your money 'up' to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We know what you're thinking: another lesbian time travel book? Well hold on, because this is a gorgeously written epistolary time-travel romance from the twin blades of Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's very good. We use it as a launch point to talk about the nature of time, memory, love and swords - and there's lots more fan service for anime fans!
Music by Schammasch: https://schammasch.bandcamp.com/
maxgladstone.com amalelmohtar.com amal.substack.com
You really should BUY THIS BOOK:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781534431003 https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war/amal-el-mohtar/max-gladstone/9781529405231
And SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We've got Jay from Crowhurst on the show for an 'interview' where we don't actually ask questions but more just hang out for an hour. It's fun though and you'll learn a bunch about noise music, cancel culture, appropriating anime symbols, whether Death's album Symbolic is good (it is), and how the weed in the UK is garbage.
Music by Crowhurst: https://crowhurst.bandcamp.com/ And Country Death: https://countrydeath.bandcamp.com/
Subscribe to our patreon, you Pig People: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Tamsyn Muir (@tazmuir), joins us to talk about her sci-fi-fantasy-horror-punk-core book Gideon The Ninth, the story of entitled Goth teens in a creepy space-crypt backstabbing each other over who gets to be the most immortal. It's amazing. We talk about New Zealand, Genre, Skeletons and Which Sword is Best.
Music by Cloud Rat: https://cloudrat.bandcamp.com/album/do-not-let-me-off-the-cliff
And Vivian Girls: https://viviangirlsnyc.bandcamp.com/album/memory
We have our own space-crypt on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We ran out of books to do, but then Metal decided to release all of the new songs at once, so here's the first of two This Week in OUGHH episodes (the other one's on the Patreon).
Music by Atlantean Kodex, Cattle Decapitation, Pharmakon, Mizmor and Liturgy.
We're joined by Bryn from Beepbeeplettuce, Left Trigger and the bands Stay Inside and Vyy to go deep into Dick's 1969 book Ubik, which gives us licence to talk about Hegel, Nietzsche, Sartre, Mark Fisher, Heidegger, Zen Buddhism, the philosophy of religion, Gnosticism, X-files spin-off series and Aleister Crowley.
Music by Have a Nice Life: https://haveanicelife.bandcamp.com/album/sea-of-worry
And Vyy: https://vyyy.bandcamp.com/releases
Sometimes you hear an EP so filthy, so sickening, that it can only be consumed sat atop a toilet while you commit time-theft. That EP is Putrescine's The One Reborn: anti-fascist death metal with songs about labor struggles, anti-vaxxers and Bloodborne. How could be resist?
Music by Carcass and Putrescine.
Trevor from Champagne Sharks joins us to talk about Colson Whitehead's follow-up to The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys. We talk about the long legacy of hatred in America, how to talk about tragedy and the uncanny nature of the chicken quesadilla deep-friend pizza.
Music by Author and Punisher: https://authorandpunisher.bandcamp.com/album/a-crude-sectioning-single
We have Morgan Giles, English translator of Yu Miri's masterful Tokyo Ueno Station, a story that is both a tearjerker and a study in understatement and subtly. Naturally, we talk about ghosts, adopting your boyfriend, the cool 9-11 and a penguin who fell in love with an anime girl. This is how you're supposed to do literary criticism.
Music by Gatecreeper: https://gatecreeper.bandcamp.com And Uniform & The Body: https://uniformthebody.bandcamp.com/
Support us on Patreon for more episodes: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
New York bay-be! I'm walking here! We had a sit-down with two of masked jazz-black-metal trio Imperial Triumphant to discuss the truly incredible music they make, their philosophy of writing what they know but giving themselves enough freedom to follow their collective muse, and the graphic novel they have released as an accompaniment to Vile Luxury, their latest album.
Pee-yoo, what is that? Oh, it's 'Reed King' (not an actual person)'s stinker FKA USA, and we're here to read it to absolute shreds with Jake Flores of stand-up comedy, podcasting and encouraging the murder of ICE agents fame.
Music by Falls of Rauros: https://fallsofrauros.bandcamp.com/
See Jake on tour across the western US here: http://www.feraljokes.com/
And https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Y'all ready to get a little weird? Erik Davis's High Weirdness explores the lives of Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Terrence McKenna, which means we get to explore... pretty much all of reality. If you thought the Evangelion episode was a head-scratcher then you'll need to be a post-subgenious to bend your head around this one.
Music by Opeth: http://www.opeth.com/
There's more weirdness on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
War on Women's Shawna Potter has taken her decades in activism and 'the scene' and made a how-to guide for not being a dick and dealing with the dick behaviour of others. It's good, and it'll help you to do good.
Music by War on Women: https://waronwomen.bandcamp.com/ And Baroness: https://yourbaroness.com/
Chris Zeischegg joins us to discuss his dark, sexy, DARK kind-of-memoir-only-not Body to Job. We discuss his work, the nature of transgression, Bret Easton Ellis, indie literature, Jeffrey Epstein and Gamer Girl bathwater.
Music by A Pregnant Light: https://apregnantlight.bandcamp.com/album/broken-play
And Immortal Bird: https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/thrive-on-neglect
Subscribe to our Patreon to 'drink' our 'bathwater' (listen to weekly premium episodes): https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Writer and podcaster RS Benedict of Rite Gud podcast joins us to talk about death, and, FOLKS, this one gets raw as we all explore our own brushes with mortality.
Music by Cerebral Rot: https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/odious-descent-into-decay
And Yellow Eyes: https://yelloweyes.bandcamp.com
Will from St. Louis-based proletarian punks Redbait joins us to talk about the band's genesis in activism opposing police violence, the books that inspire them and the least appropriate songs to play over footage of 9-11.
Music by Adzes: https://adzes.bandcamp.com/album/climate-capital And Redbait: https://redbait.bandcamp.com
What if you wanted to redefine Communism for the 21st century and accidentally wrote the plot to The Expanse? Novara Media's Aaron Bastani has written Fully Automated Luxury Communism, which extols the virtues of automation, artificial meat and asteroid mines as a means of achieving a socialist utopia.
We're joined by Jon and Ash of The Horror Vanguard (https://www.patreon.com/horrorvanguard) for this epic voyage into the world of tomorrow.
Music by Fetid: https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/steeping-corporeal-mess
And Fuming Mouth: https://fumingmouth.bandcamp.com/
And here's the homunculus video I mention. There's like a whole genre of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvGx74hdhOw
Here's our patreon, jokers: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Hussein Kesvani (MEL Magazine, Trashfuture) joins us to discuss his excellent book Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims. Predictably, we get distracted by how EXTREME Deadpool would be if he had a Venom symbiote and the religious ramifications of the Multiverse.
Music by Imperial Triumphant: https://redefiningdarknessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/imperial-triumphant-inceste-ep
Gamers rise up! But in a good way. Like against your bosses.
Jamie Woodcock's Marx At The Arcade (Haymarket Books) explores the history of the videogames industry right up to its present day, when labor organizing is just beginning to happen. We talk about the Marxist tool of workers' inquiry, Marx himself as a game character and why the bourgeois individualism of Sekiro has broken me.
Music by Warforged: https://warforged.bandcamp.com/
and Spirit Adrift: https://spiritadrift.bandcamp.com
We're joined by Intercept columnist and writer Natasha Lennard (@natashalennard) to talk about her book Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life. What's non-fascist life? Was Occupy cool? How do we make ourselves less Fashy? Ghosts? The answers are here.
Music by Neckbeard Deathcamp: https://neckbearddeathcamp.bandcamp.com/album/so-much-for-the-tolerant-left
And Full of Hell: https://fullofhell.bandcamp.com/
Support our Patreon, why don't you: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
James Bridle's New Dark Age argues for a better understanding of our late-capitalist Hellworld, taking in everything from algorithmically-generated mousepads to rendition flights. We talk about his book, nihilism, art, the New Aesthetic and we beg our listeners to send us powerful psychoactive drugs!
Music by TOMB MOLD: https://tombmold.bandcamp.com And False: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/portent
Support our Patreon and get exclusive episodes where, somehow, we are even dumber: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
Check out James' documentary series New Ways of Seeing here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000458m
It's another of our 'stuff that's not books but is as good as books' episodes, but this time kind of about a book: the manga Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda. It's about a hunt for a stash of gold in turn-of-the-century Japan, but it's actually about colonialism, indigenous identity, the psychological effects of war, and friendship. Pod Save Anime host Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) is on hand to help keep us on course.
We say the c-word a lot in this episode.
Music by Smoulder ( https://smoulder.bandcamp.com ) and Sadness ( https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com )
We talk to Juliet Escoria about her new book Juliet the Maniac (on Melville House), the story of a teenager with some very severe mental health problems who makes all kinds of sex and drugs-related mistakes and winds up in therapy, which doesn't exactly work. It's kind of something everyone involved in the making and probably listening-to of this show can relate to, so we're into it.
Music by Foie Gras and Sunn 0)))
Support our Patreon for bonus episodes
British-Literary-Neocon daddy Ian McEwan has lowered himself to writing a 'scientific fiction' book to show us poor saps that they can have real feeling and emotions! So there's a robot in the background while some middle-class white people talk about their feelings. And you bet there's some bad sexual and racial politics!
Music by Big Brave and DILLY DALLY.
Support our Patreon and become a true WÄRBRÖTHËR (gender neutral term): https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
We've got comics artist, writer and critic Sarah Horrocks on the show to talk about her work so far (which has included The Leopard and Goro) and her forthcoming mecha comic. We talk Gundam, learning to draw, the nature of melodrama and whether we'd vore Donald Trump like ducks or snakes.
Learn more about Sarah's work here: https://mercurialblonde.squarespace.com/
Music by Skepticism and Les Rallizes Denudes
And support our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
What if we're wrong about the current far-right movements in Europe and the US being fascists? What if they're a new, more dangerous phenomena that blends ideas from the far-right with the relative acceptability of the political centre? That's the main thesis in David Renton's The New Authoritarians, so we dissect it and, somehow, still manage to talk about horror movies, bad Lolita takes and bustin'.
Music by Waste of Space Orchestra: https://wasteofspaceorchestra.bandcamp.com
And Spiteful Urinator: https://spitefulurinator.bandcamp.com/album/acid-earth
And here's our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
This is both the first Patreon-exclusive episode and the first time that we've had a poet on the show: Rax King is the author of The People's Elbow: Thirty Recitatives on Rape and Wrestling, a raw, beautiful meditation on trauma and healing that's also about Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
Music by Devil Master and Chevalier.
South Londoners ITHACA blew everyone away when they released The Language of Injury in February, so we've been waiting, biding our time, holding back until the perfect moment to get the band's singer Djamila to come on the show to talk about Hollow Earth, weaponised estrogen and Nicki Minaj,
Music by Grave Pleasures: https://gravepleasures.bandcamp.com/releases And Seeyouspacecowboy: https://seeyouspacecowboyca.bandcamp.com
Support our Patreon why not: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence
It's barely March and already we've got a book of the year contender: Marlon James' Black Leopard Red Wolf, an epic fantasy that might be the best, and definitely the most literary thing in the genre since The Vorrh. There's enough material in its 600-plus pages for ten podcasts, so naturally, we talk about, video games, violence, queering fantasy and under-appreciated Judas Priest albums.
Music by Fange: https://fange.bandcamp.com/ And Sutekh Hexen: https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/sutekh-hexen
Richard Chiem's King of Joy (Soft Skull Press) is a novel about porn, weed and good dogs that's also a Lynch-ian vaporwave nightmare and a raw, intense story of grief and perseverance. You know, based on that description, that I 'had to do it to 'em' (interview Richard on his life, influences and writing process.)
Music by Candlemass: https://candlemass.bandcamp.com/album/the-door-to-doom
And Violet Cold: https://violetcold.bandcamp.com/album/kosmik
Lords of Chaos was going to be the definitive story of the bloodiest chapter in extreme metal's history, a cinematic event essential to any true metal fan... Until Vice fucked up the release so only one of the three people on this podcast got to see it. Fortunately, that person was Megan Osztrosits from Couch Slut, one of the best bands ever, so we ended up talking about Air Bud, YouTube and catfishing Varg Vikernes.
Music by Inter Arma: https://interarma.bandcamp.com
And Scorpions.
We get into one of the most anticipated books of the early part of 2019: Esme Weijung Wang's The Collected Schizophrenias. The essay collection explores life with Schizoaffective Disorder, and lets us cover everything from bad C-grade Sci-fi movies to magick.
Music by Zig-Zags: https://zigzags.bandcamp.com
And Dream Theatre: www.dreamtheater.net
We're back. with a real episode about books, without a single anime in sight. We're talking with Charlie Jane Anders- prolific short story writer, podcaster, founding editor of io9, person who can stand us talking about Pissgrave for way too long and writer of City in the Middle of the Night. We discuss influence, technology, climate, tidally locked planets and Pissgrave.
Music by HIRS: https://hirs.bandcamp.com/
And Pissgrave: https://pissgrave.bandcamp.com (CW EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT- I'M NOT DOING A BIT, PLEASE DON'T OPEN THAT LINK UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE IN FOR.)
I turned my back for a second and Langdon went and recorded an episode entirely about Anime, or as the Japanese call it, 'Manga'. He and a fellow lost soul talk about Fate/Stay Night, by way of Nietzsche, Deleuze, Chaos Magick, Christian mysticism and masturbation.
Overly long theme tune by NECRONOMIDOL
Music by JYOCHO
(PS, JYOCHO did the end theme for an anime based on the work of horror manga artist Junji Ito, who also designed the cover of the latest NECRONOMIDOL album.)
We've got Leslie Lee III of Struggle Session with us to talk about one of his favorite books and ours: Cormac McCarthy's Grind-Western Blood Meridian. We talk about liking problematic work, gnosticism, Vincent D'onofrio, Mandy, Batman vs Superman and Benny Hill.
Music by Chelsea Wolfe: https://chelseawolfe.bandcamp.com And City Hunter: https://youthattack.bandcamp.com/album/deep-blood
Remember to leave us a Like or Review or we'll cut you down where you stand.
It's the very best Best Of episode of 2018, where we struggle to remember what happened this year, up to and including how many Olympics there were! Join us for a star-studded line-up that includes Mitski! Tomb Mold! Tribulation! Goblin Slayer! Mids! And many more! Maybe we should start writing stuff down! I don't know!
Music by The Body: https://thebody.bandcamp.com/album/i-have-fought-against-it-but-i-can-t-any-longer
Tom Whyman (@healthuntodeath- a reference I get immediately) stops by to discuss the legacy of Mark Fisher, one of the British Left's most innovative thinkers, and his posthumous book K-Punk (Repeater Books). We tackle his key ideas of capitalist realism, hauntology, and the weird and the eerie, Vampire Castles, the online left and Russel Brand.
Music by The Armed: https://thearmed.bandcamp.com/
And Alkaloid: https://alkaloidsom.bandcamp.com/
In this very special episode, Steve Anwyll (@oneloveasshole) is on the line to talk about his book Welfare (on Tyrant Books), a punchy, rhythmic story of purposeful underachievement and smoking shitty weed on a hot couch. We discuss getting published, William Burroughs, being condescended to in the unemployment office and saying swears.
Music by Vessel: https://vesseluk.bandcamp.com
And Chained To The Bottom of The Ocean: https://chainedtothebottomoftheocean.bandcamp.com/album/i-carry-my-awareness-of-defeat-like-a-banner-of-victory
I was lucky enough to catch Canadian anti-oppressive doom-duo Vile Creature at their show in Manchester for a chat about everything from their vegan bakery to their appearance at the Black Flags over Brooklyn festival next year to a lengthy discussion of Friends with one of the organizers of the Roadburn festival. Again, this is an incredibly normal podcast.
Remember to like this episode on Soundcloud or leave or a review on iTunes.
Crowded (on Image Comics) is about a ten-minutes-into-the-future world in which anybody can put a crowdsourced hit on anybody else, a party girl with a million dollar bounty on her head and a bodyguard with a 1.4 star rating. Its writer Chris Sebela is on the line to talk about his work, breaking into comics, raking, tunnels and washed-up YouTubers.
Music by Tomb Mold: https://tombmold.bandcamp.com
And potrayal of guilt: https://portrayalofguilt.com/album/let-pain-be-your-guide
And you can buy Langdon's book, PYRAMIDHEAD[BLACK], here: lemniscatesmallpress.tictail.com/product/…rated-by
Scandinavia fuckin' rips: it's always cold, it's mostly dark and its very existence pisses off CHUDs. We talk about Norwegian singer and novelist Jenny Hval's debut Paradise Rot, published in English by Verso, and how the legacy of Steig Larsson, the best-selling Communist in all of fiction, is being dismantled by capitalism. Also, an extended digression into how lit Castlevania is.
Music by Saparast: https://sarparast.bandcamp.com/
And Envy: https://envy.bandcamp.com
And you can buy Langdon's book, PYRAMIDHEAD[BLACK], here: http://lemniscatesmallpress.tictail.com/product/pyramidheadblack-by-langdon-hickman-illustrated-by
Aubrey Sitterson, author of The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling joins us to discuss the One True Sport. Along the way we lust after Zack Sabre Jr., talk about the similarities between death metal and pro-wrestling and find out why wrestling being fake makes it better than all other sports.
Music by Skullcrush: https://redefiningdarknessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/skullcrush-visions-of-the-firestorm-eclipse
And Bismuth: https://bismuthslow.bandcamp.com/
The best turn-of-the-century literary guy named Jonathan has a new one out, and he's back doing detective stories. Can he get back into the groove he found in 1999's Motherless Brooklyn? Will he be the first novel to take on Trump and win? How can literature make sense of a world like ours? What happens when you die honking your dong to Japanese animation?
Music by Hate Eternal: https://hateeternal.bandcamp.com/album/upon-desolate-sands
And Ithaca: https://ithacauk.bandcamp.com/album/the-language-of-injury
And leave us a damn review on iTunes you pigs.
Writer, podcaster and Troop Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) joins us to talk about the buzzed-about Cherry by Nico Walker, the almost-entirely true story of an Iraq vet getting into heroin, then bank robbery. We also talk about the opioid crisis, the shoot'n'cry genre, alt-lit and being afraid to like Bukowski.
Music by Ulthar: https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/cosmovore And Grimorium Verum, from the WOMAN II compilation: https://blackeneddeath.bandcamp.com/album/worldwide-organization-of-metalheads-against-nazis-ii
You can read more of Nate's writing about his time in the military here: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/in-these-deserts-war-stories-from-afghanistan
We've got Deirdre Coyle (@DeirdreKoala) and Michael J Seidlinger (@mjseidlinger) on the show to talk about Jeff Jackson's (@deathoflit)Destroy All Monsters, a mind-bendingly weird story of bands getting shot, and that means we get to talk about small-town scenes, KoRn, why serial killers have gone out of style and a little band of debauched space-mutants called GWAR.
Music by Cloud Rat: https://cloudrat.bandcamp.com And Nattravnen: https://nattravnen.bandcamp.com
And check out Michael's book My Pet Serial Killer, out now on Fangoria: https://amzn.to/2ROG9Eh
We're joined by The LitCrit Guy (@thelitcritguy) to talk about Oli Mould's Against Creativity, a book that argues that capitalism has co-opted art, so of course we talk about whether Slimer is a comrade, the lingering trauma of the tapeworm-man episode of the X-files and cereal cafes.
Music by Body Void: https://bodyvoid.bandcamp.com
And Bliss Signal: https://blisssignal.bandcamp.com/
In the sequel or spinoff to the last episode, we're still on the line with Chistine Kelly, owner and operator of Tridroid Records, who helps us to become the tape label moguls that we were always meant to be. But first: Kanye.
Music by Hallucinogenia, coming out soon on Tridroid Records: http://tridroid.bandcamp.com
We've got Christine from Tridroid Records on the show to talk about Olivia Laing's fiction debut Crudo... which means actually talking about Gritty, Kathy Acker, FDR faking his disability, neoliberalism, knife crime and how maybe we're just dumb, I don't know.
Part two, where we talk to Christine about running a record label, is coming soon.
Music by High Cost, coming soon on Tridroid Records: https://tridroid.bandcamp.com/
If you're listening to this on iTunes and don't leave a five-star review within seven days Gritty will appear in your room like Bob in Twin Peaks.
Antifascist war-metal breakout stars Neckbeard Deathcamp are signed to Prosthetic Records and playing Maryland Death Fest after one intentionally bad EP and now a split with Gaylord, but they're still regular guys who wear ski masks while being interviewed for podcasts. We also talk about $300 plugins to make records sound worse, Ghost, non-player characters, fascism, Vidal Sasoon and Ke$ha.
With music by Neckbeard Deathcamp and Gaylord, from their United Antifascist Evil EP (100% of the revenue from which goes to Planned Parenthood): https://neckbearddeathcamp.bandcamp.com/album/united-antifascist-evil
Gary Shteyngart, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has a new book out that weaves together threads of race, class and power to create a vibrant portrait of America in 2018. Dril is... Dril. Which of these literary giants is America's greatest satirist and why is it obviously Dril? This episode comes with lengthy digressions into cringey #resistance articles, Elon Musk, The Wire, and the True Meaning of 9/11.
Music by Dödsrit: https://alertaantifascistarecords.bandcamp.com/album/aa130-d-dsrit-d-dsrit-lp-pre-order-shipping-date-10092018
And Infant Island: https://infantisland.bandcamp.com/album/infant-island
Corey Pein (@coreypein) joins me to first give us an update on the fallout from the Unite The Right 2 mess in Portland, then to talk about his book Live Work Work Work Die (on @MetropolitanBks), in which he tries to pitch a startup to unionise Silicon Valley before pulling back the curtain to reveal the tech industry's dark past (spoiler: literal Nazis).
Music by Thou: https://thou.bandcamp.com/album/magus-2
And Cliterati: https://downloads.tankcrimes.com/album/cliterati-violation-wound
We're joined by Sean McTiernan (@nochorus) of the All Units podcast to talk about Hideo Azuma's Disappearance Diary, the story of the cult manga artist's alcoholism and homelessness, but we also talk about the pope, muscular hardcore frontmen, the psychotic workload in the manga industry and Youtube reaction videos.
Music by Candy: https://candygonnadie.bandcamp.com
And Noose Rot: https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/the-creeping-unknown
It's safe to say that we and just about everyone else podcasting right now wouldn't have even picked up a USB microphone and 'evaluation' copy of Adobe Audition without Will, Matt, Amber, Felix, Virgil, Brendan, Chadd, Thruster, Vron, Trrr and %, the hosts of Chapo Trap House. Now, they have a book out- but can they bring the magic to the printed page? And what's with that Spectator article about how Feudalism will own the libs?
Music by Bosse-de-Nage: https://bosse-de-nage.bandcamp.com/
And Fórn: https://forn.bandcamp.com/
Leave us reviews you disgusting pigs.
Dune is perhaps the greatest science-fiction epic of all time, and thus deserves deep, critical literary analysis. We can't do that so we talk about the Foo Fighters' AIDS denial, ecology, death commandos, LSD, sharing a birthday with Hitler, Varg Vikernes's dating advice, sequels and the weed that helps you understand Metal Gear Solid.
Music by Gaylord: gaylord.bandcamp.com
and Outer Heaven: outerheaven.bandcamp.com
Before there was Star Wars, before there was Game of Thrones, before there was Rick and Morty, before there was Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, there was Dune, the O.G sci-fi epic. We talk about the surprisingly deep and woke politics of a book about rich people scheming to get each other eaten by sandworms, Lawrence of Arabia, oil, geopolitics, and Warhammer 40k's fashy cooption.
Music by Miserable: https://miserablegrl.bandcamp.com/
And SUMAC: https://sumac.bandcamp.com
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
Is R.O Kwon's The Incendiaries (https://amzn.to/2AhLZJC) the debut of the year? Yes. Yes it is. We go deep into this spectacularly written novel with reference to Nietzsche, Hegel, Sartre, M. Night Shyamalan, vaping, Fortnite and Cosmic Ghost Rider.
With music by Hulder: https://hulder.bandcamp.com/releases
And Penance Stare: https://penancestare.bandcamp.com
William W. Johnstone released Trigger Warning on an unready world, despite having been dead since 2004, and we stepped up to give it the informed literary criticism that it deserves, but got bored of that and just laughed at how dumb it is. Guest Joe Thrashnkill of Toilet Ov Hell (www.toiletovhell.com) joins us for a discussion that takes in anime, Die Hard, Charles Whitman, boner-farts, and the films of Adam Sandler.
Music by Neckbeard Deathcamp: https://neckbearddeathcamp.bandcamp.com/
and Thou: https://deathwishinc.bandcamp.com/album/rhea-sylvia
Deirdre Coyle of Unwinnable and Christine Kelly of Tridroid Records join me to talk about Maria Dahvana Headley's brilliant The Mere Wife, a modernized, feminist retelling of Beowulf that inspires tangents on Trump voters, cryptids, Goths, toxic masculinity and who to cast in the movie version (I maintain that Reese Witherspoon is a highly underrated dramatic actress).
Music by Uprising: https://tridroid.bandcamp.com/album/uprising-2
And Niboowin: https://niboowin.bandcamp.com/album/breathing
Dan Jackson of Void Ritual, Dead Wretch and others joins me to discuss David Peak's Corpsepaint (https://amzn.to/2J28AZH), the first and currently only trve cvlt blvck mvtal novel. We talk about black metal kayfabe, vegetarianism, neo-nazis and telling stories from a goat's perspective, and play 100% exclusive, never-heard-before tracks from Void Ritual.
Check out Dan's non-profit metal label Ipos Music: https://iposmusic.bandcamp.com/
And follow DEATH // SENTENCE on twitter: https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
I call up Bud Smith (@budsmith), author of Double Bird and Work and a bunch of other stuff, while he's sitting in his car on a warm summer night, and we discuss the writing life, work, his process and playing Vice City on mushrooms. Regular show folks, regular show.
Music by Allfather https://allfather1.bandcamp.com/
And Emma Ruth Rundle https://emmaruthrundle.bandcamp.com/album/on-dark-horses
After a brief sojourn into Elon Musk's latest batch of fuckery, we go elbows-deep into Dempow Torishima's book Sisyphean (https://amzn.to/2tAibRA), four interconnected stories of capitalism-gone-H.R Giger and high-as-fuck weirdness. We also talk about the difficulties of translating Japanese, the CIA's influence on writing style and the dour joys of death-consciousness in books and music.
Music by Construct of Lethe: https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/exiler
And Extremity: http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/coffin-birth
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
And write to me with your inanities: deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
The Pervert writer and artist team Michelle Perez (@mperezwritesirl) and Remy Boydell ( are on the line to talk about their book (https://amzn.to/2MsVSWT) on Image Comics, MAGA chuds, tax preparation, hiding porn, collaborating, knives, helicopter rides, seducing Elon Musk, drawing a Rick and Morty comic, dead cops... and friend of the show Kurt Eichenwald!
Music by Secret Cutter: https://secretcutter.bandcamp.com
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on twitter: https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
And email me your stupid: deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs (https://amzn.to/2xYaydf) builds on his barnstorming 2013 essay... but does it build enough? And can you trick your boss into reading it?
Then we talk about how DC Comics went from the company that used rape and murder to 'take the smile out' of comics to a company putting out amazing work starring Elmer Fudd and Snagglepuss.
Also featuring a discussion of object-oriented ontology, neoliberalism, Aggretsuko, and those weird Warhammer 40k middle-grade books.
Music by Gruesome: https://gruesomedeathmetal.bandcamp.com
and Caveman Cult: https://cavemancult.bandcamp.com/
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
AND REMEMBER TO PRESS THE LIKE BUTTON, COMMENT AND LEAVE REVIEWS. THAT STUFF'S IMPORTANT.
We get Trevor Strunk of No Cartridge Audio (https://twitter.com/NoCartridge) on the show to talk about the links between videogames and literature but Langdon, mad with power after being made an official contributor, starts spitting FIRE takes like '90 minutes is actually 20 minutes', 'Finnegans Wake is a vaporwave novel' and 'anime is good'. There's also Hegel, Nietzche, Jonathan Blow, Dark Souls, Metal Gear and a refreshing lack of books.
Music by SPECTRAL WOUND: https://spectralwound.bandcamp.com/album/infernal-decadence
And Tomb Mold: http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/manor-of-infinite-forms
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
And email me with your nonsense: deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
Special guest Jordan B. Peterson introduces this episode of DEATH // SENTENCE, where Elizabeth Sandifer and I discuss her book Neoreaction: A Basilisk (https://amzn.to/2KTWaEk), Roko's Basilisk, Mencius Moldbug, Nick Land, the magickal war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, and whether the alt-right is too stupid to defeat. Plus we subtly Own Angela Nagle by mentioning her very briefly and moving on.
Music by Closet Witch: https://closetwitch.bandcamp.com/
And Necros Christos: https://necroschristos.bandcamp.com/album/domedon-doxomedon
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC
Email deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com with your dumb opinions.
And like and leave reviews and stuff.
Tao Lin was the Alt-Lit guy until the scene crashed and burned, and now he's back with... a book about how mushrooms are from space and you have bad teeth because you're a Degenerate. We talk about this, necrophilia, bad scene politics, gross emo guys, tildes, DMT and growing out of being a boring stoner.
Music by Svalbard: https://svalbard.bandcamp.com/
And Teksti-TV 666: https://teksti-tv666.bandcamp.com
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter https://twitter.com/DeathSentencePC and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/deathsentencepc/
And mail me your nonsense deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
Me and Deirdre Coyle (@deirdrekoala) talk about The Pisces by Melissa Broder (@melissabroder and @sosadtoday), which you can get here: https://amzn.to/2rEpMO6 . We also talk about gnosticism, posting great Content, casting, nirvana, the Twilight franchise and how men are trash so women should fuck monsters.
Music by Smoulder https://smoulder.bandcamp.com/ And Tomb Mold http://listen.20buckspin.com/album/manor-of-infinite-forms
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on twitter: @deathsentencepod
And remember to like and leave reviews. That helps.
I talk to Elle Nash (@saderotica), author of Animals Eat Each Other (Dzanc Books) and editor of Witch Craft Magazine (@witchcraftmag) about her life, her work, Marilyn Manson, liking Chuck Palahniuk, Colorado, getting published and Satanism.
Music by Thou and The Body: https://thou.bandcamp.com/album/body-collaborations
And Impalement: https://impalementosdm.bandcamp.com/album/impalement
Buy Animals Eat Each Other: https://amzn.to/2Iiq6MV
Follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter: @deathsentencepod
Me and Riley Quinn (@raaleh) discuss Stuart Jeffries' Grand Hotel Abyss (Verso), a group-biography of the Frankfurt School, which means we get to talk about disappointment, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, aesthetics, the Enlightenment, the rise of Fascism, Infinity War, techno and jackoff techniques.
Music by Iskra https://iskracrust.bandcamp.com
And Redbait https://redbait.bandcamp.com
Follow me on @deathsentencepod and check out Riley every week on @trashfuturepod
Write to me at deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
And read Exiting The Vampire Castle by Mark Fisher: http://www.thenorthstar.info/2013/11/22/exiting-the-vampire-castle/
And that 'The Left Is Not a Church' article by Benjamin Studebaker: https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2018/04/28/the-left-is-not-a-church/
I talk to Margaret Killjoy about her new book The Barrow Will Send What It May (Tor Books), anarchism, punk, DIY, making music, settling down, magic, the nature of power and how I cannot be killed by demons.
Music by Margaret's two bands, Nomadic War Machine: https://nomadicwarmachine.bandcamp.com/
And Feminazgul: https://feminazgul.bandcamp.com/releases
After a heartfelt tribute to the late Barbara Bush and an impassioned plea to not repeat her mistake of eating dozens of xannies while listening to Dream Pop, we talk about two books that have tackled HP Lovecraft's legacy of being a weird racist: Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country and Paul La Farge's The Night Ocean. Along the way we talk about race, literary form, the politics of extreme music and how Morrisey is a whack-ass jabroni.
Music by Our Place of Worship is Silence: https://opowis.bandcamp.com
And Novae Militae: https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/gash-khalah
Me and Langdon Hickman (@langdonhickman) talk about Giorgio De Maria's cult-classic horror-ish novel 20 Days of Turin and the much more horrifying prospect of the publishing industry chasing Trump voters, then we play new tracks by...
Messa https://messa666.bandcamp.com/
and Panopticon https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/album/the-scars-of-man-on-the-once-nameless-wilderness-i-and-ii
You can follow DEATH // SENTENCE on Twitter on @DeathSentencePC and email me your nonsense at deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
I talk about Emily Chang's book Brotopia for about eight seconds then launch into an extremely relatable discussion of neoliberalism, Cambridge Analytica, scurvy, Molly, orgy domes, Russia and the Four Horsemen of the Internet Apocalypse. Then I play Feminazgul and Olivia Neutered John. There's something for everyone on this week's DEATH // SENTENCE!
On another double episode, I talk about Eugene Lim's Dear Cyborgs and Nicky Drayden's The Prey of Gods, but also Metal Gear Revengeance again, Black Panther, prestige television, Pig Destroyer and the meaning of literature or something.
Follow me on Twitter: @DeathSentencePC And send me emails: deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
Music by Sacred Son: https://sacredson.bandcamp.com And WAKE: https://wakegrind.bandcamp.com
It has always been my dream to record extremely likable #content, and in this episode, I think I've finally done it. I talk about Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi's Call Me Zebra and Inio Asano's Goodnight Punpun, but also relatable topics like sweaty Manga dudes, the Death Stranding trailer, when bae be acting crazy, work, finding porn, poop gods, Don Quixote and how little my opinions matter. There's something for everyone!
Music by Dawn Ray'd: https://dawnrayd.bandcamp.com
And Leechfeast: https://drycough.bandcamp.com/album/neon-crosses
Follow me on twitter on @DeathSentencePC and send me warm, encouraging emails at deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
(Seriously guys, this episode is so likable, you don't even know.)
In this interview with the author of the rather good The Sky Is Yours we talk genre, getting published, reading slush piles, dragons, Logan Paul and the CIA cutting holes in your clothes. Just another regular episode of the internet's most normal podcast!
Music by Coffin Sore: https://coffinsore.bandcamp.com/releases And BLÜ SHORTS: https://blushorts.bandcamp.com/
On this very special episode, I come up with a far better idea than podcasting: a Youtube series in which an Australian Death Metal vocalist who wears a grandfather clock on his head runs around town headbutting people. Like, really giving it to them. Unfortunately, to get this million dollar original idea (do not steal it) I had to slog through Moshin Hamid's Exit West, a very bad book. I also talk about portals, firearms, the Turkish assault on Afrin, the Spanish Civil War, why I had to read Roland Barthes eight times instead of Hemmingway, and I reveal the best vocalist in all of extreme music.
Music by Portal: https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ion
And the body: https://thebody.bandcamp.com/album/i-have-fought-against-it-but-i-can-t-any-longer
Email me your nonsense at deathsentencepodcast@gmail.com
On a very special DEATH // SENTENCE, I talk about Brooke Bolander's 'The Only Harmless Great Thing', but also Instagram, radium, vegetarianism, anarchism, Robin Williams and brain slugs.
Music by Slugdge: https://slugdge.bandcamp.com And Devil Master: https://devilmaster.bandcamp.com
In this episode, I discuss what it means to be a Dirtbag in reference to Scott McClanahan's The Sarah Book, and relate the true story of my high school years, when I found myself very much in love with a girl (Noelle), who I wanted to take to an Iron Maiden concert, even though she had a boyfriend, but who ended up taking me to an Iron Maiden concert in a heartwarming twist. I also talk about Ramen, porn theatres, atonal music, Chapo, Appalachia, academia and I read poetry like I'm fancy or something.
Music by Twilight Fauna: https://twilightfauna.bandcamp.com/
Read this thing here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/01/under-neoliberalism-you-can-be-your-own-tyrannical-boss
And buy The Sarah Book from Tyrant Books: https://nytyrant.com/collections/titles/products/pre-order-the-sarah-book-by-scott-mcclanahan
THE FIRST PODCAST TO BE ENTIRELY ENCODED IN THE CRYPTO-BLOCKCHAIN OF BITCOIN, but is also about sex with dolphins, so there's no reason to not give me all of your money. I'll talk about Alissa Nutting (@alissanutting)'s book Made For Love, but also Large Adult Sons, prose style, why I had to be graded 69, orgies, molly, bitcoin, dank memes, dolphin sex, Aziz Ansari breaking my heart, initial coin offerings... and I issue more terrorist threats!
Music by Pink Mass: https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/infrared-horizon
and Vastum: http://sentientruin.com/releases/rotting-sky-sedation
Follow me on @DeathSentencePC
This week I read Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, and for once I actually enjoyed something. As always I ask the important questions: can robots nut? What doth capitalism? When everything can be owned... can robots nut? I also talk about Ready Player One, The Rapture of the Nerds, Metal Gear Solid, conventions of the Noir genre, my snow-plow guy, the politics of the X-men, capitalist realism and whether robots can nut.
Music by Artificial Brain: https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/infrared-horizon
and Rotting Sky: http://sentientruin.com/releases/rotting-sky-sedation
Follow me on @DeathSentencePC