Editor's note: My good friend Josh Burke travels to far more festivals than I do, and he was at Post Festival in Indianapolis while I was at Fire in the Mountains in Montana. He was kind enough to share his thoughts about Post in the writeup that follows. Please give it a read - if he gets a warm enough reception, perhaps he'll also grace us with his thoughts on the upcoming ArcTanGent festival!

By Josh Burke

Post Festival 2026 has come and gone. In what has been a weird (and, frankly, terrible) year in so many ways, the core of what makes Post a can’t-miss festival remains. There's great music of course, but also great people. It feels like a cliche to call any festival a “family,” but it’s well-deserved here. I’ve met and gotten to know a lot of great people in the three years that I have attended, and reconnecting with them has become almost as important as the music to me. I know a lot of festivals say that and mean it, but I haven’t found a festival with a more accepting vibe. That matters more than ever these days. That vibe comes from everyone - the organizers of the festival (the tireless, amazing, delightful Sean, Nason and Derek), the bands, and the people who travel from all over the world to be in Indianapolis for the weekend. Everyone is hanging out, digging the bands, and chatting with everyone else all weekend. There is nothing cooler than hearing Phil from Caspian say that they would not be a band if it weren’t for The Appleseed Cast, and then seeing him packed into the small room with everyone else watching The Appleseed Cast, bobbing his head and singing along.

Well, I stayed up way past my bedtime last night to join KFAI's Root of All Evil show, but it was definitely worth it. I had an absolute blast talking about this site, fitness, and Fire in the Mountains. You can listen to the archived show here. I stick around for the first three hours. Thanks again to host The Doof Lawyer for having me on!

I try to get these posts out as early in the day as possible, but this week was a challenge - there was simply too much good stuff to check out! I didn't even get to everything that caught my eye. That's a good problem to have, right? Anyway, below we've got some new versions of old materials and a bunch of great new stuff, including a few that really push the boundaries of metal. Raise the horns and read on!

I've been trying my hand at writing about music for about a year now, and I'll admit that recapping the concert experience still feels like a weak point for me. Take, for example, last night's Tomahawk and Melvins show at First Avenue. The main question that any concert review show answer is if the performances were good or not. If you're reading a recap of a Mike Patton project's show, you already know it was good. The man simply does not phone things in. The same can be said about the Melvins - Buzz Osborne is an old pro, and knows how to deliver live. So yes, both bands were great last night, but if you read on, I'll try to deliver a few other takeaways that are worth your time. 

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be a guest on the next episode of the Root of All Evil radio show! The ROALE show airs Sunday mornings from 1 - 6 am (!) on independent Minneapolis-based radio station KFAI, 90.3. It was founded by Minnesota metal legend Earl Root and is likely the longest-running independent metal show in the world, having been going strong for over 33 years. If you're not one to stay up until all hours of the night anymore, the show will be streaming here. I'm super excited to come on the show to play some awesome tunes and talk metal, fitness, Fire in the Mountains, and more!

At Fire in the Mountains, professional photographers were everywhere. There are a lot of really lovely images of the festival online, almost all of which are better that what I've got here. That said, I took a fair amount of photos during the festival, and you can see a selection of them above. I may do another collection as well. Like I said, I took a lot of pictures!

"Hey man, nice shirt!"

At Fire in the Mountains, I heard or said this phase more times than I could count. I'm guessing that everyone who attended had a similar experience. They all probably had a particular shirt that got more attention than the others. For me, it was my Giant Squid shirt with the cover of Monster in the Creek. My friend Scott got a lot of attention for his Insect Ark shirt. 

Fire in the Mountains got me thinking about many things, one of which is how important the humble band shirt is. The tradition of metalheads wearing our favorite bands on our bodies is more than just supporting those bands. It's a calling card, a statement of who we are. For me, the band shirt has legitimately shaped the course of my life. 

Many of my posts from the old Weebly version of my site didn't port over when I brought Both Kinds of Heavy to its new home. I'll be reposting all of my essays that got left out here as standalone posts. But to recreate all my link-heavy New Music Friday posts would be time consuming, to say the least. so as a half-measure, all missing entries are linked below. 

After a week away at the festival of a lifetime, I'm back with more new music recommendations. It's not a particularly stacked week, but I've got some gems for you that are new today, as well as a few things I missed last week. 

At Fire in the Mountains, I slept poorly and was constantly dirty and hot. It was always a gamble if you’d be able to wash your hands after using the porta potty. More than once, I wished that the crowd surfing would stop so I could look forward at the stage rather than backwards towards oncoming levitating bodies. Our tent was decimated by intense winds that left it only passably usable for the last three nights of the event.

I’m getting the negative stuff out of the way so that it doesn’t seem like the festival is paying me to write a glowing review.

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My experience at Fire in the Mountains (henceforth frequently abbreviated as FITM) was beyond simply enjoying an impeccably produced music festival. It was that, yes. The lineup was expertly curated, and across the board the bands were excellent. If that were all there was to say, I’d be perfectly happy with my experience. But there’s so much more to FITM, and these other elements are what made it such an impactful experience.