About

What is this site?

This is a slow, reflective album-listening blog.

It’s not a review site, a news feed, or a recommendation engine.
There are no scores, rankings, or “best of” lists.

This space exists to document what happens when I give albums time, attention, and repeated listens and to notice how my relationship with the music changes between those listens.

Who am I?

I’m a long-time metal listener.

Most of my listening history lives in classic heavy metal, power metal, and symphonic metal. Albums, not singles, were how I learned music. I often listened to full almbum from start to finish, repeatedly, over long periods of time. Then when streaming started, I created one huge playlist that I’ve been keeping on repeat for years with very minor updates now and then.

I’m not a musician, a critic, or a music journalist. I don’t have formal music theory knowledge, and I’m not trying to write authoritative takes.

This blog is written from the perspective of someone who listens carefully, not expertly.

What kind of music do I listen to?

Historically, my comfort zone has been:

• classic heavy metal
• power metal
• symphonic metal
• melodic metal with strong vocal identity

This blog exists partly to step outside that comfort zone, mostly within metal and rock. To engage with music I previously dismissed, ignored, or never properly listened to.

One of the goals here is to learn the difference between:

“This is garbage”
and
“This is not for me and here’s why.”

That distinction matters.

How do I listen for this blog?

Albums are not consumed once. They are lived with briefly.

For most posts, I follow a loose structure:

• Listen 1 - uninterrupted, no research, no notes beyond raw impressions
• Short gap - no intentional re-listening; observe what lingers mentally
• Listen 2 - light notes, patterns, attraction vs. drift
• Listen 3 (optional) - confirmation, contradiction, or erosion

Writing happens after listening, not during it.

Casual background listening may happen, but it does not replace deliberate, focused listens.

What do I listen on?

I don’t use audiophile equipment, and I’m not chasing perfect sound or expensive setups.

That said, changing my listening environment changed how I listen.

For many years, I listened almost exclusively on headphones, often too loud, often passively, often through the same long playlists repeated for years.

Moving to speaker listening changed that.

My current setup is modest and well under $1000, but it introduced a sense of space, depth, and placement that made albums feel less like stereo signals and more like environments.

Because of that, most listening for this blog happens on speakers, at restrained volumes, with attention.

This is not a gear blog. Equipment is mentioned only when it meaningfully affects the listening experience.

Is this blog only about progressive metal?

No.

Some early posts may lean toward progressive or atmospheric albums because they reward patience and repeated listening, but the scope is broader:

• metal and rock
• classic and modern
• familiar and unfamiliar

This blog reflects the perspective of a listener learning new musical dialects, not abandoning old ones.

Do you use AI to write this blog?

Yes, carefully and deliberately.

English is not my first language. I use AI tools to help with:

• grammar
• clarity
• tightening sentences

I do not use AI to:

• generate opinions
• invent interpretations
• decide what I feel about music

A personal rule I follow:

AI may remove or sharpen adjectives,
but it may not add them.

The listening, reactions, and judgments are always mine.

Will this be monetised?

Not intentionally.

This blog exists first as a sustainable personal practice. If monetisation is ever considered, it will be optional and secondary, never the reason the site exists.

How often will you post?

There is no fixed schedule.

If writing ever starts to feel like pressure, the cadence slows. That’s a feature, not a failure.