I realize as I put these posts together that a good number of the art through January has a copyright date or 2019. I edited a lot of this stuff in November and December. I’m catching up – I actually just started editing stuff drawn this year as I type this. That’s how a lot of the events of 2019 pushed this stuff back. Such as this drawing, referencing old news.

Speaking of 2019, a pretty big band in the genre of music I like called it quits. For good? SLAYER was mostly a miss for me until I gave them another shot sometime in 1999 and albums like Seasons In The Abyss and Diabolus In Musica made better sense to me. They went from being kind of a racket to a band dedicated to make evil sounding music. Reign In Blood may have been a landmark album for them & metal, but I came in late on that train and I like other stuff by them better. I’ve seen them enough, with Dave Lombardo behind the drum kit (I think, unless it was a local festival or Ozzfest type show before that happened). Nothing against the guys filling in, but I definitely haven’t seen them after Jeff Hanneman was out with illness before passing away.

Slayer started off as a band bringing the chaotic darkness from metal bands Venom and Celtic Frost to the masses before one of the members found a Minor Threat record and they toned down excessive-ness one finds in cheesy power metal, and made their music better by making their songs shorter. Nothing held back, nothing wasted, nothing beaten into the ground. The real impact that even bigger bands from their time could still learn. Definitely some catharsis released from that music, and I’m glad I had those albums in my life. Thanks guys. Enjoy retirement.

I personally enjoyed: Seasons In The Abyss, Diabolus In Musica, God Hates Us All, and World Painted Blood.