I'm up at the family cottage on Highland Lake this week, enjoying some sorely needed PTO.
I did get out an issue of Arcane Arts, which you can read here. And remember to click "subscribe."
I also got in some quality time with my friend Tom Barber, who left me a mighty gift: 10 classic paperbacks, most published by Zebra in the 1970s, all with his cover art.
In return I gave Tom a ride on the pontoon boat on a beautiful, 10/10 afternoon.
(Note: The following is the lead item in this week's Arcane Arts. I also cover REH, Jane Yolen, 70s horror, and Mike Grell's Warlord. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox)Unfortunate cover blurb.
Metal is vast. Metal is diverse. Metal is sprawling. The number of subgenres is staggering … more than 70, are you kidding? And to be honest, a little stupid. Drone metal. Funeral doom. Djent metal. Some of the finer points make sword-and-sorcery vs. heroic fantasy look like high school debate club.
And so I don’t think it’s possible to write an absolutely definitive history of heavy metal. And even if you could, who would be interested in such a thing? If you like doom are you likely also a fan of funk metal or Christian metal?
This past weekend I finished reading an attempt at a comprehensive history, Andrew O’Neill’s A History of Heavy Metal. I’d describe it as breezy, entertaining, fairly well written. But also, quite biased and therefore incomplete. An ostensible history shouldn’t ignore bands that the author does not like. O’Neill hates glam metal, so we get 10 pages of why it sucks … except for maybe Appetite For Destruction. He also has little use for Anthrax and Megadeth (Dave Mustaine’s nasally voice grates on him) so they’re largely ignored too, despite their considerable footprint.
For what it’s worth I recommend A History of Heavy Metal as a breezy, sometimes entertaining read that filled in a few corners for me. Black and death metal, mainly, and a lot of bands I’ve never heard of.
What he wrote was fine… but it’s not what I want to read. Or write. I’d rather go deep than broad. Curated instead of encyclopedic.
This is a roundabout way of explaining how I ended up writing a heavy metal memoir. We have histories. We’ve got Sound of the Beast and Louder than Hell and O’Neill’s book. We have information: Videos, podcasts, even, a map. We’ve got a million stories of the bands and performers themselves.
We don’t need another Flame and Crimson for heavy metal.
So, I wrote something quite different. A story from one fan’s perspective—my own. My life, with heavy metal as the backdrop.
My memoir will only focus on the handful of metal genres I like. But I’m not writing a history. So if you’re looking for a treatise on Unblack Metal (a real subgenre, by the way) you’ll need to look elsewhere.
But if you’re looking for one fan’s utterly unique story, maybe you’ll like this. August is getting closer.
Some cool stuff you should know about.
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| I made the marquee, not an "& Others"! |
Here's the panel description:
First Panel, 10:00–11:30MST: ‘Forging Sword and Sorcery: Scholarly approaches to REH’; moderator: Rhys Lomas
Secondly, the latest Arcane Arts hit inboxes yesterday (see, if you were a subscriber you would have already avidly read the issue). This was a good one, with links to some great YouTube videos including the complete Ronnie James Dio documentary "Dreamers Never Die" and a presentation by Tom Shippey on H. Rider Haggard's Eric Brighteyes. Plus other fun stuff.
Is the theme of this week's Arcane Arts: Dispatches From The Silver Key. I cover news about H. Rider Haggard, new sword-and-sorcery, and the passing of longtime Fantastic editor Ted White.
Sign up if you haven't already. No better way to stay in touch than email due to algorithmic whims. Also I might be doing some giveaways in an upcoming issue for loyal followers.
As noted I don't have much time for substantive posting here on the blog due to the heavy metal memoir. Just finished inputting the edits on chapter 5 (of 11) this morning. Progress is steady.
I cannot wait to share the book.
One other bit of interesting news. Below is a snapshot of my recent blog traffic.
What warrants such a massive hockey stick of a spike to the right? Must be my awesome recent post on Iron Maiden's "Thin Line Between Love and Hate"? Thousands of fans flocking to sign up to Arcane Arts?
Sadly, no. You can probably guess the answer. Very obvious patterns of AI training going on here. I can see where the traffic is coming from and 80-90% of it is not from humans.
In an ironic twist my company is paying for subscriptions to both ChatGPT and Claude. Yes, the very companies that pillage and plunder--ahem, train on--content from their betters, i.e., creative humans--to build their products, will gladly sell their product back to you for handsome monthly subscription fees. And then nail you with steadily increasing fees from the new "token" usage limits that will allow them to prop up their inflated stock prices and rake in billions.
If you're a creative you should be outraged. Unfortunately too many enjoy licking the boot heels of rich men who want you to buy "intelligence" from them like a utility--intelligence that has been strip-mined from people who actually have it.
The latest issue of Arcane Arts--my weekly-ish email newsletter covering all things sword-and-sorcery, heavy metal, personal, and random shit that crosses my transom which I find interesting--is out.
Issue #14 covers Queen of the Black Coast, a new Geddy Lee interview, and more.
Subscribe at the widget at right, or by visiting this page and dropping in your email.
Arcane Arts: Dispatches from the Silver Key went out yesterday, covering heavy metal, sword-and-sorcery (including Karl Edward Wagner's Kane, a cool fanzine I'm a part of, and an academic panel on REH I'll be speaking on).
Remember to sign up if you haven't already. It's a free email and covers stuff I don't cover here.
It also included something important I want to talk about in a bit more detail: The heavy metal memoir.
The Silver Key went dormant from 2013-2019, not coincidentally the same time I went to work on Flame and Crimson.
The good news is: That's not going to happen with the latest WIP. It's fully written, reviewed by a couple close friends and my wife who all appear in it. I rewrote it until I couldn't look at it anyore.
But on Friday/Saturday it came back from a contracted line editor. And, I have some work to do.
I plan to have it done by July-early August. I need to have it done by then. I’m giving myself a little wiggle room, but not much. I’m hosting a heavy metal party with a live band in mid-Septemer, at which I’m handing out a few free copies of the book.
It must be done by then. And so the big, difficult, final push is on.
Posting here will be less frequent and less substantive.
Has just published. More thoughts on The Stand, and S&S, and Dokken. If you happen to like these things: https://brian-murphy.kit.com/posts/arcane-arts-dispatches-from-the-silver-key-8
Please subscribe! Email is probably the only reliable way of keeping in touch with the blog and my writings.
Issue no. 10 of Arcane Arts hit inboxes this AM. I've been nailing this every week, like clockwork on Wednesday morning, though as noted in this week's issue next week might end my streak (I have to travel to Chicago on business).
This week we covered:
Imagine if there was a free, weekly, zero-spam newsletter that covered all the fun, weird, interesting, and quirky bits of popular culture you enjoy reading about here.
Curated by me, and sent directly to your inbox.
Oh that's right, there is.
The new issue of Arcane Arts went out this morning. Stuff in there I don't cover here. The only way you can be assured of not missing an issue is to sign up. Drop your email in the widget at right, or by using the blue "subscribe" button on the landing page below.
https://brian-murphy.kit.com/posts/arcane-arts-dispatches-from-the-silver-key-6
As always, I welcome your thoughts/commentary/suggestions for future issues here.
Sign up with the widget at right, or with the subscribe button on the Kit webpage.
Here's the latest issue, with a "deep dive" into Seawitch simliarities, beer can art, and more.
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| Kane vs. the Werewolf by Jeff Easley. |
Here's what you're missing if you're not a subscriber. Fix that today by signing up using that email widget at right.
The third issue of Arcane Arts went out earlier today.
I've gotten a couple of responses from readers who seem to like what I'm doing with the newsletter. Or at least they flatter me with hollow praise. I'm still figuring out exactly what I want to do with it, but it's becoming an informal way of sharing what I'm watching/reading/thinking about, with a little bit more of a personal touch than you might typically see on the blog.
What, you're not getting Arcane Arts? Fix that today by entering your name and email address in that widget at right.
Here is a link to the latest issue. A lot of fun S&S related updates in this one.
A quick subscribe and you'll never miss the next.
That email newsletter widget on the side of the blog, over there ==> ?
I'm finally putting it to use.
The first issue of Arcane Arts: Dispatches From the Silver Key has hit inboxes.
Important note to would-be subscribers: CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER
If you used this form to sign up, you might not have received the first issue.
I know this because the platform, Kit, tells me which subscribers are confirmed vs. unconfirmed. I've got 12-15 folks who signed up, but haven't clicked "confirm" on the auto-email that kicks out to confirm you've keyed in the right email address.
If this sounds like you, or you did not receive the first issue, check your spam folder. If you signed up months ago and/your spam folder is empty, try subscribing again. You just need to confirm once and you're on the list.
Issue #1
I published the first issue via email but also to the web, you can read it here:
https://brian-murphy.kit.com/posts/what-s-brewing-with-arcane-arts-dispatches-from-the-silver-key-6
I'm still pondering what with I want to do with Arcane Arts, but suffice to say it will be something interesting and wizardly. I kick around some ideas in this first issue but welcome your suggestions here as well.
It's not meant to replace anything I'm doing on The Silver Key (hence, dispatches from). I see it primarily as a way to keep in touch with folks who might otherwise forget to return to this dusty corner of cyberspace. It makes the blog a bit more sticky.
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| Trapped in the web... of Arcane Arts. |
Update: The form is working! I've got confirmed subscribers.
No, you’re not seeing things. That widget is there. I’m starting an email newsletter.
Why?
• Third party platforms are ephemeral. Google might nuke Blogger from orbit… and all my readership would vanish in an instant.
• I need a better way to keep in touch with readers. I get a lot of flyby traffic that comes, reads an article and sometimes more, and then vanishes. I suspect because there’s no easy mechanism for getting back to this static blog. A quick signup form keeps people connected.
• I like what I’ve done here and don’t want to migrate over to something like Substack. Yes, it’s more modern, has better publishing architecture, and it has email distribution. But I’d lose the backlinks, the domain authority, etc.
What might I do with the NL? I don’t have a firm plan yet, nor even a name. I’m sort of building an aircraft in flight, but some ideas include:
• Brief summaries of posts with links to read the rest
• Bonus content you won’t get on the blog
• Updates about my new heavy metal memoir WIP and other projects
• Giveaways
It’s free, if you like what I do here please sign up. No spam; I'm thinking a monthly email. Just expect the unexpected… wizardry, arcana, that sort of thing.
I'm embedding it here in this post as well for better viewing.
