Howdy folks. I've made a couple additions to the site in recent days to make it easier to find specific content, and I wanted to share those changes with you all as they're easy to miss.

This version of Both Kinds of Heavy launched on July 31, 2026. Today, just over a month later, this site received its 5,000th unique visitor. I'm sure that's a tiny fraction of what other music sites see, even other indie sites. I'm also sure that some of those are bots or otherwise not real people. But I am sure that my wildest expectations have been exceeded. There was never a long-term plan for this site - it's just a place for me to share my thoughts about things that are important to me. The fact that so many of you (relatively) think that my ramblings are worth your precious time is gratifying and humbling. So thank you for reading, all of you. I am sincerely thankful and I plan to keep this weird little experiment going as long as people are still willing to read it. 

After many years without plastic instrument gaming, the spiritual successor to video game hits Rock Band and Guitar Hero arrives this December. Stage Tour is being released by RedOctane Games, the company that published the original Guitar Hero game (the brand was later purchased by Activision) and developed by veterans of that series. The launch trailer for the new game is above, and promises gameplay that looks very similar to both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. What seems to set Stage Tour apart is that it looks to feature licensed instruments and venues, and perhaps some real-life rock stars will make appearances as well. But, as with all games of this style, the real draw is the song lineup. Stage Tour will launch with over 90 tracks, including songs from Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Mastodon, Castle Rat, Ghost, Babymetal & Electric Callboy, Rage Against the Machine, and many more. There's also plenty of stuff for the young'uns, like Olivia Rodrigo. I was just thinking the other day about how much fun Faith No More's "Epic" was to play in Rock Band...

I'm trying something different here and asking directly for you to comment on this post. Who are you, how did you find this site, and why are you reading? If there's something in particular you'd like me to write about, please let me know! I would love to hear from you to learn a little bit about who my audience actually is.

I hope I'm not opening myself up to discovering that you're all bot. Eff off, SkyNet!

A buddy of mine, Chris Ward, is a really funny guy. He's also a big fan of music and pinball, and those passions come together in the first video on his new YouTube channel. I don't personally know a lot about pinball, but Chris definitely does. If you're like me and don't play a lot of pinball it's still worth your time because, like I said, Chris is a really funny guy. He's got a great story here about bombing an interview with Rob Zombie. Enjoy!

I sent my friends a screenshot of my site traffic today, because the number of unique visitors ended with 666. As the writer of a metal site, I am duty bound to point out the Number of the Beast with it occurs. This post, however, is not about evil. This post is about love. 

I started Both Kinds of Heavy as an outlet to share some of my silly thoughts and as a means of expressing myself. While I hoped that other people would read it, I never really expected it to gain any kind of real readership. It was a labor of love, pure and simple. 

And yet, for some reason, people are reading it. Or at least some AI bots or web scrapers are reading it. I'm not saying this site is ever going to be the next Pitchfork or even the next Invisible Oranges. Let's face it, a site dedicated to fitness and heavy metal is kind of a dumb idea. Nevertheless, thousands of people have read my site. Not hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands yet, but thousands nevertheless. Mostly in the United States and Canada, but apparently several dozen in Germany, for some reason. 

I want to thank each and every person who has taken the time to read something on this site, and to offer up this suggestion: That silly idea you have? You should do it.

Editor's Note: Both Kinds of Heavy existed in a more primitive form for about a year before launching in its more polished state at the end July 2026. I wrote a few pieces that I think hold up reasonably well during that time, and I'll be resharing them occasionally so they might find a wider audience. This piece was originally published in September 2025.

I could have tried to come up with a clever headline, but why be anything other than direct? This post is about music making me happy. 

"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. 

After about a year of playing around with this blog, visiting Fire in the Mountains inspired me to trying taking this site to the next level. I'm proud to present the new BothKindsOfHeavy.com. No more free Weebly site here. Some of the content didn't port over as expected, so my first order of business is to try figuring that out. But in the meantime, I'll continue my regular features such as New Music Friday and hope to start adding content more frequently. Thank you in advance for reading!