Dublin Bass & Drum Duo TRUE HOME Drop Meditative Doom Record ‘Black Lotus’
~Doomed and Stoned~
By Billy Goate
There aren't a whole lot of bass and drum acts out there. Bell Witch, Big Business, Bardo, and Behoover come to mind (strangely, the majority of bass-led bands also choose names that begin with the letter "B"). What may not be as tough to pull off when tempos are swift, becomes a challenge when everything slows down to a doom's pace. And you want to strip the band of its (arguably) most popular instrument?
That's at least how the heavy underground felt until OM came along and blew our minds with the advent of Meditative Doom, sans guitar. Other bands have followed in those footsteps, including Zaum from New Brunswick and Breath from Oregon. Now from Dublin, Ireland comes bass & drum duo TRUE HOME with their own take on meditative doom in 'Black Lotus' (2023).
True Home's most accessible song is placed first on the album, "The Cry of the Mountain Hawk," featuring a slithering stoner-doom riff that sounds like a royalty fuzzified Tool. Vocals are droning and clean, not too distantly removed from Reverend Bizarre, and share a kinship with Sleep frontman Al Cisneros. This one's got a chorus that I'll probably find myself singing whilst making breakfast or taking out the trash. It's just something I do.
Beneath each song is the lulling sitaresque tone produced by programmed synth. It grounds us to the experience and becomes more and more comforting with eath encounter. "The Great Journey" takes a bluesy, jazzy, off-beat approach to Gregorian Chant, at least until things get electrified to work out all that nervous energy -- with irradiated noodling that rivals Swamp Ritual.
The intensity ramps up even more for "Sailing The Sand Dunes," in which the bass moves with big, sweeping gestures and stays busy as hell trying to keep the barge moving over barren Saharan hills and flats. This is the one, I'm sure, that'll get people headbanging at concerts.
The last two songs on the album usher us deeper into a realm of tranced-out introspection, with the mysterious, hazy, and hypnotic "Buddham Sagnahram Gachami" and the near 20-minute transcendental colossus, "Ascension Of The Astralnaut," featuring spoken word passages that serve perhaps to guide the listener into a state of general meditativeness.
The record is ideal for Cursed Monk Records, who specialize in dark musical esoterica. "The darker, weirder, and heavier the better," their motto goes. True Home's Black Lotus will be released on May 26th on compact disc and digital formats (pre-order here).
After suffering a dreadful bout with COVID (the Delta strain) in 2021, psychedelic, meditative doom was key to my mental, physical, and spiritual recovery. I'm pleased to have another band enter the fold. Stick True Home on a playlist with OM, Bong, Zaum, Breath, Saturnalia Temple, and Megalith Levitation.
Give ear...
Black Lotus by True Home
SOME BUZZ
Photographs by Shane J. Horan
True Home is a Dublin Based Psychedelic Meditative Doom Metal two piece. Featuring Declan Beare on Bass/Vocals, and Charlie Appleby on Drums and percussion.
The Bass and Drum combo balance between transcendent meditations and earth shattering heavy riffs.
For two people they move a serious amount of air at bone crushing volumes, helped by the droning modular synth providing a continuous atmosphere to get lost in.
Their 3rd studio album "Black Lotus" comes out on CD and Digital Download May 23rd via Cursed Monk Records.
Follow The Band
Get Their Music
2 notes
·
View notes
😭 people on tiktok are commenting on the barrel scene from the OPLA and putting shoe emojis and then typing out their dreams, as if they are putting their foot on the barrel with the crew 😭😭😭♥️♥️♥️
for example:
8K notes
·
View notes
i’d rather have rainbow capitalism then living in constant fear of discovery. the woman in the pride flag disney t-shirt might be missing the nuance, but at least i know i can be myself. a street full of rainbow flags makes me more comfortable holding a mans hand. look. corporations aren’t your friend. they will sell to whoever will buy. but kids seeing gay everything every year is only ever a good thing, and a massive improvement in history
63K notes
·
View notes
Guys I miss Wally… Im getting back into the groove with some Pokémon au/human doodles of him (and Ditto <3 Dittos always invited)
2K notes
·
View notes
happy birthday to the album that changed my brain so bad that I still have not and will not ever recover from-
DANGER DAYS NATION RISE ‼️🗣️
2K notes
·
View notes
the mighty nein - critical role
this is a place where i don't feel alone.
this is a place where i feel at home.
2K notes
·
View notes
DP X DC PROMPT #25
(#) = Notes at the end of post
(*) = Just me building off of other ideas.
✦
Family Reunion
Clockwork sends an adult Danny, newly appointed Ancient of Space, on a mission through time again. Except this time, it isn't located on Earth, but a distant planet he's never even heard of before. Clockwork didn't tell him any specifics on what he was supposed to do or when he was supposed to return to his own time, just to blend in and have an experience. He would know when it was time to return.
Needless to say, he has a blast! His core is bursting with happiness at getting the chance to explore this unknown corner of the universe with a sky full of constellations he's never seen and fascinating locals. Considering he might be here a while, he buckles down and learns all about their culture and their traditions and even eventually learns their language without having to use the two-way translator Clockwork gave him.
He spends decades there, not even having to worry about how he never appears to age, the people here being incredibly long-lived. However, he eventually meets someone. Someone he falls head over heels for. He gets married. He has kids. He watches them slowly grow into adults as well. It isn't until one of his sons informs him that he's expecting his own child(1) that Danny feels a tug at his core.
He ignores it, but over the course of a few weeks, it's gone from the occasional pull to a full-on yank at his entire being, along with a sense of dread that something was going to happen to this wonderful little planet. To his family.
He becomes restless and loses so much sleep, it's a miracle he can even stand. His family are worried for him, but he assures them that he's just feeling a little under the weather. One night, he's sat up in bed, unable to sleep again. His gaze is fixed lovingly on his spouse, but nonetheless sad.
He doesn't miss when all the soft sounds of the night stop and a green glow appears behind him.
"It's time to leave, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"There isn't any way I could stay? I can't bring them with me?"
"I'm afraid not. There are some things that can't be changed or stopped, even when they fall into your domain. I'm sorry."
"Why send me here just to make me abandon them like this? What was the point?"
Clockwork is silent, but when Danny turns to look at the ghost, he's gone.
Danny takes a few more precious days to spend time with his family. Kiss his spouse. Hug his kids. Feel the strong kicks of his grandchild he won't be there to witness the birth of.
The night he leaves, he places a letter on his spouse's nightstand, gently kisses their forehead, and disappears in a flash of green, never to be seen again.
Years later is when Danny gets the news. That the planet Krypton is no more and that his family is gone. He searched the Ghost Zone for them, but he never knew the location of Krypton in the cosmos. Their afterlife is beyond his reach, in a place that isn't even on the Infamap.
He nearly drowns himself in grief when he finds a sliver of reprieve in the form of a news broadcast. An extraordinary man in blue and red with the kryptonian symbol for such emblazoned on his chest is shown fighting off multiple enemies at once. He is the spitting image of his father and Danny as well.
He had a grandson. His grandson was alive.
✦
(1) This was Kara, not Clark. Danny left before he even found out about Kal-El being in the oven, so there will be a misunderstanding at first. Then Kara pops up later, and Danny just bawls his eyes out that he had two surviving grandchildren without even knowing it this whole time. How he first meets either of them is up to you!
(*) What this means power-wise for Clark is yours to decide. As well as what Clark already knows about his grandfather from the stored information his father left him. What his father thought of Danny disappearing without a word is also up for you to decide.
741 notes
·
View notes
how lucky we are that, even crushed under the weight of sadness & grief, we are capable of giving love and joy to other people, and they are often more than happy to give some back.
20K notes
·
View notes
rainy days
667 notes
·
View notes
A Steddie Nutcracker AU
"Once upon a time, there was a Prince, a Boy, and a Curse.
Thats how these stories always start, right? The good ones, at least."
(shoutout to @just-my-latest-hyperfixation who has been a huge help to me as I've struggled through this- Happy Holidays Hype!)
It's finally done! Here is the Prelude of my Steddie Nutcracker AU 👑
I'll throw together a plot summary soon for those who are interested, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy these three pages. ^__^
990 notes
·
View notes
Clownsuu, i think your goober wally is popular now. I've seen so many artists make their own style of da goober.
GOOBER WALLY WILL LIVE ON!!!
GOOBER WALLY UPRISING
FORFEIT ALL YOUR VALUED POSSESSIONS TO THE GOOBER-
2K notes
·
View notes
The Hades and Persephone AU
So! It had been a coincidence. One of the Rouges Cass had been chasing down had dropped a stray Bullet Casing, and she had managed to miss it as she ran after them. All they could hear through the Comms was her startled yelp as she tumbled 3 Stories, directly onto her Back.
Batman had rushed to the scene, hoping that his daughter was still alive, but when he got there he came across a very different sight. A Tall, shadow covered Knight Carrying Cass in his Arms. Before he could do anything, the Shadow Knight turned away and walked deeper into the Alleyway, were a Lazarus Green Portal stood waiting.
Batman could only watch as his critically injured daughter was kidnapped by some sort of Dark Armored Demon. And into a Portal glowing with the same light as a Lazarus Pit no less.
When he returned to the Cave, Bruce immediately contacted Constantine. Within the Hour, Constantine had arrived and had been lead to the scene where Cass had been taken.
"Well, I don't know what you did to catch their ire but it seems like Orphan was kidnapped by a Realms Being." He explained, "And by the looks of it, by the Right Hand of the Ghost King himself. How did you manage this?"
"Where can we find her?" Asked Batman in a Hard Tone. This was his Daughter, and she had just been kidnapped by Royalty from another Realm. He didn't know why, but they were going to pay.
"Well, the Ghost Zone is a treacherous Realm. Ordinarily I would advise against even considering going there, but I know you will either way."
Constantine gave them Directions to a small town in Illinois, where supposedly a pair of Techno-Mages had managed to open a Permanent Portal the the Ghost Zone. They would have all the Weapons, Armor, and Transportation he would need to venture into the Zone.
Finding the Tecno-Mages was easy (though they preferred the term Ecto-Biologists), and surprisingly convincing them that they needed their help was even easier. Once Batman explained that his Daughter had been kidnapped by a Being from the Zone, they offered their help immediately.
"We understand, if it had been one of our own Kids who had been kidnapped, we would be doing the exact same. If only we could get into contact with our Son, he has connections in the Zone that may be have been useful, but he's been busy for the past few days."
After a day of preparing, the Team was ready to delve into this alternate dimension to save their Missing Family Member.
...
Meanwhile Cass is living out her Mythologically Accurate Romantic Fantasy (I have a headcanon that Cass adores myths). She was basically Kidnapped like Persephone, except it was under very different circumstances.
Basically, David Cain had made a deal with the Previous Ghost King. David would be given access to Fresh Lazarus Pits for the League, and in return the Ghost King would be given his daughters hand in marriage upon her Death. And while Cass was technically still alive, her Near-Death Experience had drawn enough Ecto to her that it pushed her Liminality past the point of Human Limits. She was no longer technically Alive, so the Contract had activated.
Thankfully, when Fright Knight noticed his new Queen-To-Be's condition, he had rushed her to the Far Frozen to be healed. Then he brought her to the Castle and had informed Danny of the development.
Now, Neither of them was really ready to be married, but a Contract like that needed to be canceled by the one who made it. And Pariah was still locked in his Box. So, they had delved into the Ghost Writers Library to see if they could find a Loophole.
And Study Dates have never been so fun.
Even though she isn't ready to be married yet, Cass still thinks that Danny is kind of cute. And she likes his goofy little smile, and his slightly glowing eyes, and his smooth white hair, and-
Oh, that Persephone comparison might have been a little more accurate than she thought...
489 notes
·
View notes
sansa is so important actually. she's not a warrior, she doesn't have dragons or fighting skills or magic, she only has herself to rely on and she gets through it. “courtesy is a lady's armor” and she uses it so well. but beneath that armour, she still has a heart and no matter what she goes through, she'll never let herself forget that. “if i am ever a queen, i'll make them love me” and its not fake love and fake charity, it's genuine care for everyone she meets. she risks beatings from joffrey in order to help out random lowborns that she doesn't even know. she risks even more by telling margaery about joffrey's true nature so she can save another girl from his abuse. “my skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.” and yet the author never let's us forget that she's still a little girl and she still hurts so much. this armour that she uses to protect herself never makes her vicious or uncaring, if anything, it's the exact opposite. she still prays when she thinks that the gods aren't listening, because they might be and she'll take any chance at saving herself and her family. she learns not to trust people at face value but still loves knights and stories and songs and she still believes in good over all else. petyr tries so make her his persephone and his lolita and she wont let him “i am not your daughter, she thought. “i am sansa stark, lord eddard’s daughter and lady catelyn’s, the blood of winterfell.” even when forced to give up her identity, she still refuses to forget who she is. she's just so important guys
952 notes
·
View notes
Fuck the timeline, everyone please consider an au where the Knight of Dawn narrowly escapes from a fight that almost kills him and as he's limping through a forest to find somewhere to hide and recover, the woodland creatures find him and lead him somewhere. He follows, assuming they're leading him somewhere safe, but before he can reach it he collapses from his injuries. As his consciousness begins to fade, he sees Princess Meleanor looking down at him and he isn't surprised that she'd been waiting for his end, waiting for him to join her in the Underworld where he'd sent her.
Later in the evening, Lilia Vanrouge is startled by the door to his quiet little cottage bursting open. His prince and pupils have returned... and they have dragged the injured Knight of Dawn back with them. Silver runs up to Lilia and begs "Papa" to help the poor injured man they'd found in the woods, completely oblivious to how Lilia's blood chills and his mouth goes dry because his son this human child had so cluelessly brought an old enemy into their home who also happens to be his father.
588 notes
·
View notes