Flying On Clipped Wings

I’ve loved music since a fairly young age, though perhaps a good arbitrary starting point is the age I first got my mam’s Walkman, yes the one that plays cassettes, and there was a mixtape made of all the songs I loved at the time, some Green Day, some punk, a lot of The Smiths and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!. My music tastes have gone through various iterations throughout my life, from getting into all the indie and punk my parents loved growing up, to becoming a proper metalhead in secondary school, to diving into hip hop thanks to Odd Future, NWA, Lil B, Chief Keef and Gucci Mane, diving back into indie when I wanted to be able to talk about music I liked to people I knew, and the weird collision of various conflicting sounds at my current age. Here are my 10 favourite albums, all listened to at various stages throughout my life, all great records. 1: Counterparts: The Difference Between Hell And Home I first heard Counterparts on a compilation CD when I was a tender 17 yea

(tw: mental illness, suicide, self harm) For as long as I can remember i've always dragged my feet when it came to different things, but in the end I'd always come through. Giving out about doing a farm job but still trekking up the fields in my wellies. Fucking around getting drunk most weekends out of the month during sixth year until the gravity of the situation set in and I went on to crush my Leaving Cert, a pretty crass boast at 21 in final year of college but fuck it, I tried to kill myself that April, I thought scraping arts would be lucky, but I pulled through when shit got rough. It's something I like about myself, and it's something that's held me back from getting proper help for a good long while. Well, that and the fact that mental illness fucks over your cognitive abilities, energy, all the shit you need to get better. The fact I've seen and heard enough to leave me deeply cynical towards the medical services and not want to put myself throu

(Originally published on The Odessy, Grand Rapids Chapter, https://www.theodysseyonline.com/7-metalcore-revival-bands) So you know metalcore yeah? That oft derided subgenre of metal and hardcore, probably your first step into the genre with the likes of Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Asking Alexandria etc etc? Before it became the commercial behemoth and monster it did in the mid 00’s, it was one of the most interesting, intense offshoots of punk and metal, beginning in the early 90’s. It had something for everyone,  the heartwrenching catharsis of Poison The Well ,  the delicate textures and tender bludgeoning of 7 Angels 7 Plagues ,  the doomy stomp of Disembodied ,  the hellraising, downright Satanic fury of Integrity ,  the mathematically precise attack of Botch . It would merge with the melodic death metal of Sweden to birth the likes of Killswitch Engage, taking heavy inspiration from the likes of emo, pop punk, death metal and even electronic music as it evolved