Author: heathenstorm
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Meta Late than Never
Although I haven’t specifically used Facebook since I detached from that scrollslop-sodden mess, I still kept it around as another site to syndicate my blog posts. Occasionally dropping in to check up on friends, but otherwise resigning it to the dregs of enshittification. Then, a few days back, I was denied access to the site…
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The Ruins of Beverast – Hamburg
A few weeks back, I crossed the sky to a snow-stricken Hamburg, honouring one of my favourite bands, The Ruins of Beverast, as they launched new album Tempelschlaf. Although the rigmarole of the journey is another story altogether, there remains much to be said about the gig itself. No stranger to shows in and around…
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Hamburg Humbug
It’s never wise to visit Hamburg in January. My first experience was twelve years ago, where my beard froze the moment I stepped out of the S-Bahn. The gig I was travelling to then was unfortunately cut short (eternal respect to the late Jill Janus), but availing myself of the delights of the Reeperbahn and…
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The Defenestration Game
It’s been a time-honoured adage that the best advert for Linux is Windows. Despite that, I limped along with a Windows 10 install on my laptop for many years. It did the job reasonably well, and I could run the apps I needed to for both myself and my studies. Then the “upgrade” to Windows…
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Reading ahead to the New Year
On the surface, the back end of 2025 appears a curiously quiet coda to an explosive summer, with nary any evidence nor scandal to show for it. Yet the last few months have become some of the most fulfilling of my life. Returning to the Academy for the second year of my Foundation degree, I…
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Project Caligari
As the days tolled ever onward to All Hallow’s Eve, an opportunity arose to make use of a new creative space on campus – just by our CentR Stage bar and just in time for the Academy’s Halloween party. Despite only receiving full access and equipment on the morning of festivities, a hastily scribbled tribute…
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Back to Skool
Kit bag eagerly shouldered, I prepare to start my second year at the Academy of Live Technology. Returning to finish off my Foundation degree in Live Event Production, I’ll be specialising in Audio and Visuals instead of doing a little bit of everything. Although it seems, despite the long summer, that I’ve barely ever left…
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Another Time, Another Space
With the world breaking down over ever more partisan unpleasantness, it seemed almost frivolous to make my way towards Tilburg last weekend. But as a self-confessed (and obsessed) “Ayreonaut”, I was compelled to take amazing flight to honour thirty years of phenomenal music. AYREON is the Prog-Metal project of Dutch musician mastermind Arjen Anthony Lucassen…
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Green Fields and Reckoning
After the triumphant experience of managing the main stage at Metal Magic, I lingered around Denmark for another fortnight. Working on a gruelling festival tour that took me around the country and to the limits of endurance. Celebrating its forty-third summer, Grøn Koncert is a mainstay of Danish Pop Music, raising money for Muskelsvindfonden –…
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For the Magic of Metal
I never had “Backing Dancer for Arthur Brown” on my 2025 Bingo card… Metal Magic has always been one of my favourite festivals, having only missed out on a single accessible year since 2014. I’ve always found the chilled out ‘Garden Party’ atmosphere to be appealing, a reflection on the friendliness I’ve experienced in all…
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Ten Years of Blood and Fire
Nearly a fortnight has passed since the Summer Solstice on Neudegg Alm, and life has barely calmed since that wondrous night of flame and belonging. With the heat of the moment propelling once-aching feet towards new possibilities, I must take pause to reflect and release before moving on. It was my tenth year on the…
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Of climbing…
I’d never climbed a mountain before. At the start of this year’s House of the Holy festival in Abtenau, Austria, a group of friends from the UK and Sweden decided that’s just what they were going to do, taking on the First Pass in the nearby Tennengebirge range. Accepting their kind invite and relishing the…