Jeff Nippard is one of my favorite fitness experts at the moment, as he's a great source of science-backed health and wellness information, and he just seems like a really decent dude. Body fat is one of the first things people always think about when they think about fitness, and this short video is a really simple guide to understanding how the same levels of body fat can appear hugely different on different people. Check it out. 

By all of my own guidelines, I shouldn't be reviewing the new Swans album. Whenever possible, I'm trying to get to records before they're released, and I've never even considered reviewing a live album before now. While there are some truly fantastic live albums out there, my focus is on new material, something you don't typically see on live recordings.

And yet, Swans isn't a typical band. Newly Sentient Being isn't a typical live album. Not only is it a staggering recording in its own right, it may also wind up being remembered as one of the defining albums in the band's discography. 

Editor's note: I originally published this essay in December 2025, but as the midterms approach, I'm once again thinking about visions for a better country, and decided to reshare today. 

Fitness and music are two of my major interests, but if anyone follows me on Bluesky, they'll know that politics occupies a similarly large portion of my brain. Sometimes, two of these three major interests converge, and today is definitely one of those moments. Yesterday, I learned about the Turners, members of German-American gymnastics clubs called Turnverein. It strikes me that Americans could benefit greatly by emulating this German movement from the 1800s, and not just physically - maybe I'm being a hopeless optimist, but I think that embracing the teachings of this movement could go a long way towards healing some of the bigger sociopolitical issues in our country today. 

Happy Spooky Season! Every October, I try to watch as many horror movies as possible, and this month I'll throw a lesser-known horror movie I recommend at the bottom of this column, because I'm just generous like that. The Music Gods are also generous, and have gifted us with some more great tunes this Friday. Into the pit with you!

Place of Rescission is the solo project of Philadelphia-based musician K. Schaaf. Schaaf's first album under the moniker, Collateral Gore, released in early September, and I discovered it when he posted about it on Reddit. I gave it a listen and was immediately captivated. Collateral Gore sounds nothing like most of the bands we cover here, but it undeniably dark and heavy. Cobbling together elements of post-punk, classic industrial music, free jazz, dub, and more, the sound of this album is sinister yet rich, unsettling yet warm and alive. It's unlike any album I've heard this year, in large part because Schaaf built custom "noise boxes" like the one above to create the soundscape of the album. 

I had to learn more, so Schaaf and I have been emailing back and forth about his music all week. Below you'll find an edited transcript of our conversation, along with a photo gallery of his creations and a fascinating video of them in action. 

Starting a review is like picking one of many doors into the world of an album. Sometimes, the door to choose is obvious. For a songwriter known for profound or incisive lyrics, you simply choose the door labeled "lyrics." For an artist known as a next-level guitar player, you take the door labeled "guitar." But what door do you take when there are many that all seem equally exciting? Take, for example, the new album Wasteland by Portugal's Travo. I initially saw this advertised as a heavy psychedelic rock album. There's a lot that fits under that umbrella, but I still have a basic expectation of what that sounds like. But diving into Wasteland, I hear many elements that don't fit neatly into that box. I always find music that colors outside the lines quite compelling - there's no neat comparison here, so there's no obvious place to start with the review. The only way to figure it out is to pick a door and try to find a way back out.  

In the interest of getting myself to write more about fitness, I've decided to add a regular weekly post, Wellness Wednesday. These are mostly going to be quick excuses to post whatever YouTube fitness tip that caught my eye most recently, but hey, fitness content is fitness content. You'll start to see that I definitely have my favorites. One of my more recent follows is Kayce Hollingsworth, who is an absolute monster with calisthenics. His advice on pullups has been an absolute game-changer for me. You can see that simple tip in the video above. 

Not into the fitness content? I've got another review coming in a couple hours. 

One of the real joys of writing about heavy music is its expansiveness. I've written about this before, but there are so many ways to make heavy music, and that freedom allows for a much broader range of sounds than most music genres. With this review of Ohio's Valley of The Sun, I have now reviewed 12 albums, and none particularly sound like any of the others. Click through to that page and you'll see black metal, noise rock, heavy industrial, synthwave, and now, with the addition of The Blacklight Sessions, some good old-fashioned stoner rock.  

Having started a site about music and fitness, it's pretty easy to guess that those are two of my major interests. There's another topic that interests me almost as much, one that has popped up in my writing here from time to time: politics. I am an avid follower of politics. I read political news every single day, I have worked on a few political campaigns, and my day job is in the public sector. While I understand why many people find politics exhausting or disinteresting, I genuinely believe that the world would be a better place if people were more involved in the mechanics of how their communities operate. Given this interest, I was pretty excited to talk to a band with an unquestionably political album on the way. That album is People as Idiots & Idiots as Leaders, and from Austria's hardcore punk band Desolat. Head into the pit to read my conversation with Desolat's vocalist and guitarist, Alfred Satani. It has been lightly edited for grammar. 

Happy Friday, all! We have a really interesting New Music Friday lineup for you today. There's a lot of electronic-based music this week, some of which is fun and danceable, while other releases are about as much fun as a black hole. We've also got some black metal, some sludgy post hardcore, and a couple of very, VERY experimental releases. Into the pit!