I'm pleased to announce that I'll be a guest on the next episode of the Root of All Evil radio show! The ROALE show airs Sunday nights from 1 - 6 am (!) on independent Minneapolis-based radio station KFAI, 90.3. It was founded by Minnesota metal legend Earl Root and is likely the longest-running independent metal show in the world, having been going strong for over 33 years. If you're not one to stay up until all hours of the night anymore, the show will be streaming here. I'm super excited to come on the show to play some awesome tunes and talk metal, fitness, Fire in the Mountains, and more!

At Fire in the Mountains, professional photographers were everywhere. There are a lot of really lovely images of the festival online, almost all of which are better that what I've got here. That said, I took a fair amount of photos during the festival, and you can see a selection of them above. I may do another collection as well. Like I said, I took a lot of pictures!

"Hey man, nice shirt!"

At Fire in the Mountains, I heard or said this phase more times than I could count. I'm guessing that everyone who attended had a similar experience. They all probably had a particular shirt that got more attention than the others. For me, it was my Giant Squid shirt with the cover of Monster in the Creek. My friend Scott got a lot of attention for his Insect Ark shirt. 

Fire in the Mountains got me thinking about many things, one of which is how important the humble band shirt is. The tradition of metalheads wearing our favorite bands on our bodies is more than just supporting those bands. It's a calling card, a statement of who we are. For me, the band shirt has legitimately shaped the course of my life. 

Many of my posts from the old Weebly version of my site didn't port over when I brought Both Kinds of Heavy to its new home. I'll be reposting all of my essays that got left out here as standalone posts. But to recreate all my link-heavy New Music Friday posts would be time consuming, to say the least. so as a half-measure, all missing entries are linked below. 

After a week away at the festival of a lifetime, I'm back with more new music recommendations. It's not a particularly stacked week, but I've got some gems for you that are new today, as well as a few things I missed last week. 

At Fire in the Mountains, I slept poorly and was constantly dirty and hot. It was always a gamble if you’d be able to wash your hands after using the porta potty. More than once, I wished that the crowd surfing would stop so I could look forward at the stage rather than backwards towards oncoming levitating bodies. Our tent was decimated by intense winds that left it only passably usable for the last three nights of the event.

I’m getting the negative stuff out of the way so that it doesn’t seem like the festival is paying me to write a glowing review.

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My experience at Fire in the Mountains (henceforth frequently abbreviated as FITM) was beyond simply enjoying an impeccably produced music festival. It was that, yes. The lineup was expertly curated, and across the board the bands were excellent. If that were all there was to say, I’d be perfectly happy with my experience. But there’s so much more to FITM, and these other elements are what made it such an impactful experience.

After about a year of playing around with this blog, visiting Fire in the Mountains inspired me to trying taking this site to the next level. I'm proud to present the new BothKindsOfHeavy.com. No more free Weebly site here. Some of the content didn't port over as expected, so my first order of business is to try figuring that out. But in the meantime, I'll continue my regular features such as New Music Friday and hope to start adding content more frequently. Thank you in advance for reading!

It's hard to believe that I'll be flying out to Fire in the Mountains in a little more than a week. Of course, I'm spending a lot of time with bands on the bill. I had a lot of fun delving into Enslaved's catalog, and while I don't have the time to highlight another band with such an extensive library, I figured I could knock out a shorter discography or two. Which brings me to another one of the festival's big draws: the reunited ​SubRosa. 

Many years ago, I briefly met Ronnie James Dio. 

I've told this story many times in person, but I realized that I had never written it down. In truth, it's a pretty small encounter, but it's never failed to bring a smile to the face of whatever metal-loving fan I've told it to, and hopefully it will do the same for you. 

As the highest-billed band on the Fire in the Mountains lineup that I'm not super familiar with, I've decided to do a deep dive on Enslaved as the festival draws nearer. I listened to the band's entire studio album discography in order and wrote a few quick thoughts on each album as I listened to them. I skipped the live albums, collections, and other releases that fell outside the boundaries of their proper studio releases. My goal with this project it to prepare for their set at the festival, and perhaps establish a new feature for this site - I may do similar deep dives on other bands in the future. 

Read my thoughts on each album below.