So, what’s up? The concept is that demise steel and black steel, the 2 genres that comprise the majority of bands in Metallum, produce fewer trifectas per capita. But that may’t simply be it. Surely, the untrifecta’d lots should have an excellent purpose for not doing their steel responsibility, proper? Well, I requested one.
Atavistia are a symphonic demise steel band from Vancouver, British Columbia. Starting out with a method that was like a casual answer for long-suffering Wintersun followers in search of new music launched often, the quartet has grown right into a bombastic colossus of melodeath maximalism that doesn’t forgo the smaller, world-building parts just like the rise and fall of full compositions. Its latest album, Cosmic Warfare, out now through Blood Blast Distribution, is thru with earthly considerations and has blasted the hell off into area.
“The vast unknown cosmos has always been a path we wanted to explore,” the band wrote in an e mail. “There is something inherently brutal about space and we felt the concept worked well with the written songs at the time.”
What hasn’t labored for the quartet so far is the trifecta. “Well, our name was derived from the archaic English word ‘atavistic,’ meaning ancient,” the band explains. “To us, the word isn’t just a name for the band but a true expression of our music. Since our name has such a twist on the word, we haven’t found a place to use the band name in a track as of yet! But who knows what the future will behold!”
The numbers don’t appear to behold a trifecta. Atavistia’s subsequent launch will likely be its fourth. The band is symphonic. While its Canadian ancestry has some trifecta historical past (121 complete, 2.33% relative depend), its subsequent launch quantity (2.2%) and style (34 complete, 1.45% relative depend) make a future triple appear unlikely. But that’s the ironic factor concerning the trifecta: Although steeped in heavy steel numerology, the numbers don’t actually matter. The trifecta isn’t only a set of three. Instead, it epitomizes a heavy steel feeling, like an indecipherable brand or a weathered battle vest, aligning its proprietor with custom whereas serving to them declare their very own id.
Although they’re trifecta-less, Atavistia get this. “At that point, and in our opinions, we’d have to have Atavistia be an entire genre of its own, and that intensity would be fitting for a possible trifecta,” the band writes, making an attempt to let me down straightforward. “However, we don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
For Ardent Nova’s Mike Pardi and Wiseblood’s Sean Frasier, although, becoming a member of the heavy steel trifecta membership has its advantages. “I suppose it feels pretty good, but it wasn’t planned, that’s for sure!” Pardi writes. Frasier provides, “As someone releasing the album, I’m a total nerd for bands that go all-in on establishing their identity and messaging. Prioritizing those elements truly separates many new artists. A trifecta isn’t the only way to achieve a strong musical identity, but I think a trifecta debut album would turn my head way faster. I hope the club dramatically expands in the coming years!”
But will the membership increase? That brings us again to the trifecta’s future. As the relative depend tumbles, why would possibly the trifecta be falling out of favor? “I think metal has run out of band names,” Pardi responds. Frasier has an analogous take: “In conjunction with Mike’s thought, metal band names are definitely becoming more complex so they’re not another entry on Encyclopaedia Metallum with a dozen bands brawling for the same name. But I think it has more to do with metal’s reverence for the past than waning creativity. I see a lot of younger bands naming songs that pay homage to genre legends. Maybe once they find their own distinct voice they will contribute a mid-career trifecta.”
In that sense, Ardent Nova are virtually too becoming of an analog for the trifecta. Along with bands like Nite and the Gauntlet, Ardent Nova have discovered its voice in a burgeoning style with ties to the previous, fusing black steel with melodeath and pouring that red-hot combination right into a trad forged. “Rise From Ahe Ashes,” full with stinging leads, Pardi’s charred-black vocals, and drummer Ryan Gallagher’s Into Glory Ride-esque pounding enjoying, is like good-era Amon Amarth reshaped into the type of a few of Noise Records’ most interesting.
What’s fascinating is that a few of Ardent Nova’s powered-up, trad belt flexing is a holdover from their earlier incarnation as a extra straight-up heavy metaller. Given demise steel’s relative disinterest within the trifecta, did Pardi’s earlier hall-residing, heavy steel alignment assist Ardent Nova to triple play?
“Possibly!” Pardi solutions. “I think it boils down to the song titles and the album cover. Death metal usually has brutal-looking album covers. It might be harder to come up with something where all three work well and make sense with an over-the-top album cover.”
“I think it relates to the theatrical nature of power and trad metal,” Frasier explains. “Since those genres grew from the golden era of heavy metal, [its] ego matches the style and fashion. Death metal is more of a down ‘n’ dirty subgenre of jeans and sneakers. It doesn’t surprise me that genre has fewer trifectas, but I’d still love to see one of my favorite death metal bands do it. I’m calling you out Blood Incantation, Sentient Horror, Mother Of Graves, and Horrendous!”
The legend does state that in case you say “Blood Incantation” 3 times right into a modular synthesizer, the band will seem. Anyway, whereas we look ahead to the bands we like to trifecta, or perhaps a band named Trifecta to take a daring step, everybody with an curiosity within the title triumvirate has a favourite they like to inform you about. “The longer names, such as ‘Congratulations On Your Decision To Become a Pilot,’ [take] a trifecta over the top,” Jace Mogill writes. Sean Frasier’s is a basic: “My favorite trifecta example is probably by Angel Witch, whose eponymous song is a tale of scorned love with hotter-than-hell speed riffs.”
And, as you’d anticipate, my favourite veers into the ridiculous. In 1996, a Polish heavy/energy steel band achieved the trifecta on its demo. Its title? Asshole. Asshole’s “Asshole” from Asshole. It by no means fails to make me snort. But there is one thing inspiring about it. If an Asshole can pull off the trifecta, you possibly can, too. Dream huge. –Ian Chainey
FOUL EMANATIONS FROM THE VOID
10. Olde Throne – “Killiecrankie”
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Subgenre: atmospheric black steel
On their debut album, Olde Throne sang of Ireland’s nice famine; on their new one, In The Land Of Ghosts, they’re channeling Scottish ghost tales. The midtempo march of “Killiecrankie” is all doom, gloom, and remorse, a mournful paean to loss and decay. More particularly, the music is concerning the Battle of Killiecrankie, an engagement within the Jacobite rising of 1689. Though the Jacobites gained, either side suffered in depth losses, and, in accordance with the highest Google hit and authority Spooky Scotland, the battle web site is taken into account probably the most haunted within the nation. The music is appropriately solemn, with riffs that shoot darts of sorrow into the heavy, lingering mist. The latter 3/5ths of the monitor, an prolonged outro, is the place “Killiecrankie” reaches a better aircraft, bringing in a pair of flutes that pierce by means of forests and fog and echo throughout crags and centuries. [From In The Land Of Ghosts, out now via Naturmacht Productions.] –Wyatt Marshall
9. Ypres – “Threads”
Location: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Subgenre: post-metal / doom / sludge
According to Ypres, the formulation is straightforward. “If we’re talking post-metal,” guitarist Ivan Tokarev stated to Breathing The Core in 2019, “I guess we just really wanted to play both post-punk and doom metal at the same time and there was no way around it.” And but, regardless of there being no scarcity of bands within the final 15 years which have sought to just do that, the Russian quartet so simply burns by means of any lingering fatigue related to the Cult of NeuroIsis sound. How?
Solypso, Ypres’ second album, presents a number of clues. First, these songs at all times appear to be in movement. In different phrases, they’ve momentum, by no means getting mired in overlong stretches of experimentalism or atmospherics. The rhythm part, Denis Zarutsky on bass and Kirill Tsarkov on drums, excels at this job, energizing winding instrumental passages with the identical kinetic power as a rolling sea.
Second, Ypres know the place to put their factors of curiosity. Each music is outfitted with at the very least one killer riff that ties the whole bundle collectively. But even when they didn’t have these riffs, Ypres understand how these songs must movement. That is to say, they don’t drop in a crescendo out of grim necessity as a result of that’s what post-metal bands do. Instead, they stoke pressure till the time is true. And then, WHAM.
Finally, Ypres perceive their strengths. Vocalist/guitarist Denis Dmitriev has an ideal roar. “Knowing Light”‘s beginning calls for cleans. In post-metal, this is a recipe for disaster. There’s nothing extra immersion-breaking than heinous cleans. Ypres, although, outsource these cleans to visitor Sata. And Sata crushes it. Crisis averted.
Anyway. Whatever. Here’s a barely extra important clue: “Threads” bangs. When the music will get to its spaced-out finale, with each instrument seemingly strobing with most depth, it guidelines. It’s why this January launch that sat in my wishlist for months after I picked it off Rennie Resmini’s Substack is showing within the April column. It has restored my religion that post-metal will be nice. There’s no different approach round it. [From Solypso, out now via the band.] –Ian Chainey
8. Hellish Form – “Deathless”
Location: United States
Subgenre: funeral doom
When Deathless strikes to main keys, you actually really feel what Hellish Form are doing. Because of these moments, the second full-length by Jacob Lee (Keeper) and Willow Ryan (Body Void) is a beacon of hope. And that has grow to be an indicator for the funeral doom duo.
“I think each song definitely takes a path, both in lyrics and the music itself, toward catharsis. Coming to an emotional realization or finding closure or something like that,” Ryan stated to Captured Howls in 2021 earlier than the discharge of Hellish Form’s excellent Remains. “It’s another thing that I think comes with the territory of this kind of music, but it was satisfying to pinpoint the emotions on hope or acceptance or resolve. It’s the kind of thing I hope people can find comfort, relief, and beauty in.”
“Deathless,” the opening monitor of Hellish Form’s latest work, can slowly crush with the most effective of them, developing a densely layered thrum within the spirit of Skepticism. But the wash of synths is barely completely different than the standard funereal keyboard tickler.
“As far as inspiration, there is a lot,” Ryan advised Decibel in 2021. “Outside of heavy music, there are a lot of melody ideas. One of the things we did last year while we were recording Remains was to cover The Cure. That kind of put in perspective for me. This kind of music can be really relevant to what we’re doing, even though it sounds really different. It is really informative. Then thinking about how do we incorporate these ideas into doom and that offers a lot of fertile ground for inspiration.”
The synth swirl does have Disintegration-esque majesty to it. (It jogs my memory a little bit of the Bauhaus spin-off Tones on Tail, significantly its basic, “Rain.”) But how Hellish Form makes use of that ingredient is its true energy. At 10:25, “Deathless” bursts into a bit of vibrant chords. Screams, guitars, synths, and drums unite to type a euphoric rumble. It’s the daybreak after a protracted night time, the sunshine returning after interminable darkness. [From Deathless, out now via the band.] –Ian Chainey
7. Mesarthim – “Type IV”
Location: Australia
Subgenre: atmospheric black steel
Mesarthim have been blasting by means of deep area for greater than a decade at this level, sending missives each impressed and haunted by interstellar phenomena by means of the void all alongside. If their latest album, Arrival, guarantees reaching some vacation spot in any case this time, it positive doesn’t sound like dwelling. At 16 minutes — a size the Mesarthim duo are conversant in — “Type IV,” which closes out Arrival, is an expedition of its personal. It weathers the vicissitudes of area, shredding by means of asteroid fields into eerily quiet nothing, the place slowly faint rays take type and beckon to new components unknown whereas the guts yearns for what’s been left behind. Orchestral parts kick issues off, a grand introduction to the following area opera that’s accompanied by recordings of flight-deck-to-mission-control chatter. Power steel synth leads, black steel riffage, depth-delving doom, trance-y loops and bloops, and luxurious ambient soundscapes then form the journey. Through all of it, Mesarthim present they nonetheless maintain a novel view and imaginative and prescient from the cockpit that continues to evoke awe. [From Arrival, out 5/26 via Avantgarde Music.] –Wyatt Marshall
6. Savage Oath – “Warlock’s Trance”
Location: United States
Subgenre: epic heavy steel
Manilla Road, Visigoth, Eternal Champion, Sumerlands, Magic Circle — these are simply among the bands that the blokes in Savage Oath have listed on their resumes. In the world of 2023 capital H-M American Heavy Metal, you’d be thought-about a power within the making to have shared phases with that listing. Getting their inventive engines to unite is placing collectively a band of heroes that would save the realm. Prepare to gallop, wail, and bellow with righteousness and fist held excessive on Savage Oath’s debut, with the lead single “Warlock’s Trance” whisking you into the halcyon glory days of hair, denim, metal, and valor. This is what it’s all about. The dominant vocals from Brendan Radigan (Sumerlands, Magic Circle, Pagan Altar, et al.) are the work of a grasp at his peak — pure wailing energy that activates a dime to sing about greedy a sword hilt with tender nuance after which powers up once more to interrupt glass with a sustained excessive notice a half second later. The band is ripping all alongside, after all, with consistently shifting and energetic riffage and on-your-toes drumming that hammer dwelling the drama of taking it to the enemy and overcoming evil with fashion. Savage Oath’s banners are up, they usually’re rocking. [From Savage Oath, out 5/26 via the band.] –Wyatt Marshall
5. Ocean Of Grief – “Imprisoned Between Worlds”
Location: Athens, Greece
Subgenre: melodic doom / demise steel
It’s the riffs and leads that hook you. Ocean Of Grief, a Greek melodic doom/demise steel band, are excellent at them. Those guitar components are the sonic equal of making an attempt to indicate the world a courageous face when you’re dying on the within. And whereas they’re wrought with woe, they supply reduction. “For me, doom metal is when you listen to a heavy [emotional] album that takes your mind away, makes it travel, get lost among the melodies and the atmosphere,” bassist and co-founder Giannis Koskinas stated to Forgotten Scroll in 2018. “And when it ends, you can feel more lightweight. It’s like a catharsis.”
The logline for Pale Existence, Ocean Of Grief’s second full-length, would possibly as effectively be catharsis by means of killer riffs. In that very same Forgotten Scroll interview, Koskinas namechecks some basic crawlers with an analogous capability to convey sorrow whereas making you bang your head: Saturnus, October Tide, Paradise Lost, and Daylight Dies. But Koskinas’ deeper cuts stick out: Slumber’s Fallout and Enshine’s Origin, two albums that appear to take further care to make sure the riffs aren’t simply window dressing for the despair.
Similar to how the important thing to stoner doom is definitely the rhythm part, the essential ingredient of melodic doom is just not the environment or lachrymose passages that slather on the unhappiness, however the riffs. It’s a type of quirks of the fashion that you simply solely decide up on in case you’ve listened to numerous it. And it seemingly runs counter to melodic doom’s acknowledged goals: the tragedy, the heart-rending distress. Even although real-life melancholy is characterised most by its world-stopping inertness, the melodic doom equal doesn’t land if the riffs and leads don’t rip.
“Imprisoned Between Worlds”‘s opening riff rips, especially that nifty flourish that conjures the sublime Dan Swanö. And I love how active guitarists Filippos Koliopanos and Dimitra Zarkadoula stay throughout the track’s working time, bouncing between demise steel runs, stately arpeggios, swirling leads, and supporting chugs. The remainder of the sextet is true there with them. Koskinas and drummer Thomas Motsios press ever ahead. Keyboardist Aris Nikoleris tastefully accents quiet sections with starlight twinkles whereas rising the burden of the band’s heavier forays. And singer Charalabos Oikonomopoulos’ growl skillfully avoids the “so br00tiful” over-performative anguish that suggestions numerous bands into self-parody. All advised, Ocean Of Grief play like a band that is aware of they’ve riffs as a result of they do. [From Pale Existence, out now via Personal Records.] –Ian Chainey
4. TDK – “Kazvaha (Nishto Ot Tova, Koeto Pravish, Nyama Znachenie, Ti Si Neshtastnik, Umri!)”
Location: Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Subgenre: noise rock / avant-garde
You by no means know when Nemesta, the most recent album by TDK, a band hailing from “the Separatist Republic of Dobrina,” will lower to the fast. “Every morning, I wake up with the birds. They wake me up every morning,” singer Nikola Nikolov drones menacingly in Bulgarian on “Kazvaha (nishto ot tova, koeto pravish, nyama znachenie, ti si neshtastnik, umri!),” “I know that every day of my life. I know that every day is my last.”
TDK’s music is far and wide in the most effective of the way, usually matching the meandering, surrealist delirium of Nikolov’s wordplay. Sometimes the core quintet forcefully hammers factors dwelling with tough timing like a noise rock King Crimson. In different cases, it stretches out into prolonged drones like a doom jazz band melting down. I believe this says all of it: An accordion, performed with uncharacteristic aggression by Aleksey Kalinin, elements in usually. With TDK, it’s at all times an journey, one thing that unsuspecting audiences are certain to be baffled by. Indeed, winking tour dispatches on the official TDK web site inform of individuals flummoxed by 9/8 time signatures.
Be that as it could, whereas some bands would favor to steer into the antagonism, punishing listeners for the temerity of urgent play, TDK are moderately giving. Not that their avant-garde inclinations are inviting in a pop sense, however the band goes the additional mile to make these songs as partaking as doable. For instance, Jesse Gander’s manufacturing and Stuart McKillop’s mastering sound nice, constructing a large sound whereas guaranteeing every instrument within the combine continues to be identifiable. But it’s laborious to not be wowed by how a lot work TDK have put into fleshing out every part. Truly, the songs are like cities.
But what makes Nemesta actually nice is what I hinted at above: TDK have found out twists and turns that each shock and really feel earned as a result of they hit you so profoundly. On “Kazvaha (nishto ot tova, koeto pravish, nyama znachenie, ti si neshtastnik, umri!),” it’s when the music fades away and Nikolov sings a fractured lullaby, finally gaining a duet associate within the form of business scrapes and bangs.
I wish to know the place the birds come from, the tailors of my morning. I wish to understand how the winds are born and the place autumn lies right down to sleep. But most of all I wish to perceive, to really feel it in my blood, to have lots of of virgins sing to me, to see it with my eyes, simply to know…
That’s what hits me immediately. Still, Nemesta is so deep it is perhaps a special factor tomorrow. All I can say with certainty is that this album has been in heavy rotation since I heard it at Machine Music and has already hit me 100 methods. “Just to know…” Isn’t that what all of us need, actually? [From Nemesta, out now via the band.] –Ian Chainey
3. Morwinyon – “Indifference”
Location: Todi, Italy
Subgenre: atmospheric black steel
The Italian duo powering Morwinyon have mastered hazy, attractive atmospheric black steel, smearing ethereal magnificence atop pulse-quickening, pitch-perfect riffwork. Night sky auras, lush cosmic clouds, and eye-watering vistas abound in Morwinyon’s world, and on “Indifference,” they interaction with melancholy and post-punk staccato to delirious impact. The monitor is all blasts from the mark, rage interspersed with synth-washed marvel and remorse, the screams fuzzed past recognition and mixing right into a singular font of pained glory that shoots skyward. It’s the punkish stance that, uh, differentiates “Indifference” from among the different songs on the wonderful Wastelands, the place extra easy — however no much less inspiring — constructions from the larger atmospheric black steel tree maintain issues down. Shout out to reader Ibobren, who final month known as out Morwinyon’s latest album within the feedback — now we’re each hooked. [From Wastelands, out now via Naturmacht Productions.] –Wyatt Marshall
2. Healthyliving – “Until”
Location: Edinburgh, UK
Subgenre: doom / rock / post-metal
Healthyliving went into Songs Of Abundance, Psalms Of Grief with guidelines. In an interview with Echoes And Dust, Scott McLean enumerated the massive two: (1) following a spark of inspiration, songs wanted to be completed in the identical session, and (2) extraneous layering was not allowed. As McLean clarified, “…everything had to be based around one guitar part, one bass part and the drums.”
Of course, the three musicians comprising Healthyliving didn’t let these guidelines restrict them. You don’t make a band with the boundless creative potential of multi-instrumentalist McLean (Falloch, Ashenspire), singer Amaya López-Carromero (Maud The Moth), and drummer Stefan Pötzsch (Lasse Reinstroem) and rein within the creativity. But these guidelines clarify why Songs Of Abundance, Psalms Of Grief works so effectively. Rule 1: These songs crackle with the power of musicians nonetheless exploring the perimeters of items they haven’t composed to demise. Rule 2: There’s pressure hiding inside these items’ relative sparseness. Remember: voice, guitar, bass, drums, and for probably the most half, that’s it. Because there is no such thing as a security internet, cover-ups, or distracting ear sweet, each ingredient is out within the open. Thus, Healthyliving know each ingredient must be good. They are.
This strategy lends even heavier tracks, such because the Messa-by-way-of-Virus “To The Gallows,” an intense vulnerability. If that’s the pull, Healthyliving’s push is how assured the gamers sound navigating this materials. Blessed with 100 voices, from a hair-raising keening howl to a mild but commanding croon, López-Carromero delivers the most effective vocal performances of the yr. Likewise, Pötzsch’s drumming is frequently fascinating with out ever overwhelming the listener. And McLean’s guitars and occasional synth create unimaginable, rolling surroundings. But these are components of a larger entire. Songs Of Abundance, Psalms Of Grief isn’t only one guitar half, one bass half, and many others. It’s Healthyliving, one hell of a band.
The Neurosis-y “Until” must be the music selection as a result of that is nonetheless ostensibly a steel column. Don’t get me mistaken, nice monitor. But could I additionally level you in the direction of “To The Fields,” one in all my favourite songs of late. The ballad unspools in a approach that must be left unsullied by comparability, however when has that ever stopped me? So, I’m going to say it’s like Kristin Hersh working in the identical mode as Jeff Buckley. When the music bursts with a firework crackle of distortion and undulating bass, it’s a launch worthy of the spine-tickling shivers it elicits. That stated, I’m more and more drawn to the facility of “To The Fields”‘s quieter starting. “One eye closes, one lung sings,” López-Carromero sings. “One fist opens, two birds dream.” [From Songs Of Abundance, Psalms Of Grief, out now via the band.] –Ian Chainey
1. Shadows – “Nightstalker”
Location: Santiago, Chile
Subgenre: heavy steel
Some steel musicians are recognized for his or her educational mastery of the very essence of heavy steel, subgenre savants that wield a twin risk of music construction in a single hand and an overarching, deeply innate understanding of historical past, imagery, and elegance within the different. Think Chris Black, aka “Professor Black,” and his nigh inscrutable tasks that embody Dawnbringer and High Spirits; Fenriz’s well-known heavy steel tree blackboard session and Darkthrone’s unassailable command as each trailblazers and historians; and even Tobias Forge’s Ghost, the work of a perfectionist who produced some of the impactful, ear-worm heavy debuts of the twenty first century so far in Opus Eponymous and has taken excessive steel imagery additional into the mainstream than just about anybody else.
Let’s additionally contemplate Chile’s Shadows as star pupils. On “Nightstalker” — and every thing else they’ve blasted into the world to this point — Shadows are throwing gas onto the perpetual hearth and embodying the darkish magic that makes steel so mysterious and alluring. The first minute of the monitor, with a windswept acoustic intro and a stiff higher lip riff, gives you an concept of precisely what we’re moving into. When the sneering, wailing vocals kick in to conjure the darkish, and synth accents flash star-drop glints onto the nocturnal scene, it’s pure steel magic, loaded with wild man solos and riff energy. From gamers named “John Shades” and “Michael Mist,” these guys get it, they usually’re taking us all on a wild journey. [From Out For Blood, out 5/19 via Sentient Ruin Laboratories.] –Wyatt Marshall
Bonus. Body Stuff – “Fame”
Location: New York, NY
Subgenre: rock / heavy steel
Body Stuff are again with Body Stuff 4. Friend of the column Curran Reynolds (vocals) and Ryan Jones (devices) have as soon as once more created a piece that appears like the good child you knew circa 1988 made you a mixtape. But right here’s the factor: Body Stuff don’t bounce round. Instead, they discover the throughline that unites disparate genres. For occasion, opening monitor “The Chains” exudes Sisters Of Mercy cool whereas distorted guitars alternate between heavy NYHC chugs and faster Ministry runs; Reynolds’ hearty howl appears like Springsteen absolutely embracing his Suicide affect; and the synths have a pleasant freestyle kitschiness to them. Yes, we’re nonetheless speaking about the identical monitor. And, someway, it doesn’t matter what fashion Body Stuff incorporate, there’s no whiplash. Instead, the duo distills its influences right down to the commonalities and composes catchy songs that bullseye the center. That it retains getting higher is the true story.
Ah, however I’m preserving you from the massive reveal. My dangerous. “Fame” options Tiffany. Yes, that Tiffany, the mononym herself who has two #1 hits to her title. Is this the primary time a chart-topper has appeared in The Black Market? Possibly! I don’t know, did Animals Killing People ever make it to primary? Doesn’t matter. Tiffany sounds nice. Even higher, she suits the music so effectively, giving her part some actual Leather Leone energy. No shock, as Tiffany might at all times wail. Then once more, Tiffany fronting a steel band, when? [From Body Stuff 4, out 6/2 via The Chain.] –Ian Chainey
HYMNS OF BLASPHEMOUS IRREVERENCE