Hello Hermits! Welcome to the fourth ritual of Hermit Rites. The last month has been interesting to say the least, and getting these arcane spells together was a bit different, and difficult. I’m going through some stuff, as is the rest of the world, and to add to that we are all being bombarded by right wing nazi bullshit from the people that are, hypothetically, supposed to be preventing that shit, and we are being assaulted with propaganda and lies from the people we are, again hypothetically, supposed to be trusting the most.
In December and January I was given a large amount of time to just do whatever I wanted to, and what I wanted to do was listen to an absurd amount of music, read as much as I could, and write as much as I could. As a direct result, this ritual features the full list of music I listened to in January, a review for Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King, and a raw and unedited short story called “The Transfer” from 2023.
Making sure I took the time afforded me, I was also able to finish writing and edit my debut novella. It took me a little over a year to finally get it right, and I am beyond excited to unleash it. Later today all the details will be published in its own post.
Thank you for reading, and don’t be afraid to subscribe.
January 2025 Music
I have never kept track of what I listen to in a month like this before, even when I was a music reviewer. The only releases I kept track of back then were the ones I reviewed. One of the many things I’ve decided to hyperfixate on this year is what I listen to, and to write about it. I’ve missed writing about and reviewing music, and with my most recent Interview with Mother Endless being the first interview I’ve done in what feels like close to a decade ripping that bandage off, I have the itch again. But now that I have interviewed Mother Endless, I don’t want to just chat with musicians, but also wrestlers and my fellow writers. Meaning, Hermit Rites is now getting a more firm direction with what you’ll be finding in this turnbuckle of Substack.
A huge chunk of what is on this list is stuff that I’ve listened to for the first time EVER. Lots of it is my usual, but even in the genres I genrelly frequent (yes I said that) there are bands that are new to me in this list. I’ve also been exploring dungeon synth thanks to my friend Bariann (with others who will come to light). She is not just the small woodland creature introducing me to the music, but also the fierce antifascist vegan who runs Fiadh Productions out of New York. So if this list (and any others in the future) seems a bit Fiadh-biased, it is. Bariann is also introducing me to the equally antifascist group of musicians that create these pastoral woods and raging seas that fuel my writing of late, and even a few regular fans.
At about half-way through January I had already listened to over 80 releases and I told my friends, but they didn’t say anything because I have no friends and they were like “how can you listen to so much music?” And the answers are ADHD, autism, self-isolation, depression, and the desire to only listen to music, read, write, and watch professional wrestling multitudinous.
This boombox survived an apartment fire.
It was about the 20th of the month when I dug out my old Sony boombox that survived an apartment fire so that I could listen to cassettes, which is one of my favourite formats to listen to music with. So now I have a Sony CD/iPod player and a Sony CD/cassette player. Just need to complete the office with a Sony CD/record player.
Some of what I’ve listened to I’ve also reviewed, and the reviews are, handily, below. The formats I listen to are Bandcamp [BC], Cassette [CS], Compact Disc [CD], and (if I had a player) Vinyl [LP] [10”] [7”]. And if you see a release title with “Quotation Marks” around it, it’s literally just a song, not a full release.
1. Cynic – Re-Traced [BC] 2. Junius – The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist (x3) [BC] 3. Morke – Sleepy Eye [BC] 4. Morke – Sirens (x2) [BC] 5. Defenestrate – Sobek EP (x2) [BC] 6. Traktat – Dogmatic Accusations [BC]
7. Vengeful Spectre - Vengeful Spectre II (x3) [BC]
Now that Dimmu Borgir are officially done, it’s time to bring Vengeful Spectre to the forefront of symphonic black metal. Their second album continues musically from their first, bringing in deeper explorations of funeral doom and death metal into the symphonic/folk/black metal they had crafted previously. Using Chinese instruments alongside the blasting blackened drums, heavy riffs, and tortured vocals adds a wonderful layer to play with my eardrums. And these guitar solos! The solo in “Blood and Ashes” is just unfuckinreal. Thematically, the lyrics also continue the story from the first, “…depicting the life and death of a prophet, a religious war of insurgence, and the return of vengeful swordsmen.” It’s pretty badass. Hit the Bandcamp logo below to buy/stream.
8. Cali Bellow – Ciao Bella [BC] 9. Fogweaver – Labyrinthine (x2) [BC] 10. Fogweaver/Erreth-Akbe – The Immanent Grove [BC] 11. Haunter – …Of the Night [BC] 12. A///Plague – Solve Et Coagvla [BC] 13. Blood Incantation – Starspawn [BC] 14. Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down (x2) [BC] 15. Fogweaver – Fogweaver (x2) [BC] 16. Vanagandr – Storms of Empire [BC] 17. Gonemage – Handheld Demise (x2) [BC] 18. Willow Tea – Faery Circles [BC] 19. Hermit Knight – Adventures in Depersonalization [BC] 20. Sentenced – The Funeral Album [BC] 21. Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth [CD] 22. Wyoming Toad – Under a Critter Moon [BC] 23. Morke – Forged in Steel and Love (x4) [BC/CS] 24. A Rose Dying In The Rain – Por siempre tú [BC] 25. A Rose Dying In The Rain/Moongazer – Sky of Fading Lights (Split) [BC] 26. Agriculture – The Circle Chant [BC] 27. An Autumn for Crippled Children – Lost [BC] 28. Delmak-0 – Cryptobiotic [BC] 29. Sleep Token – One [BC] 30. Sleep Token – Thread the Needle (x3) [BC] 31. Al-Namrood – Ana Al Tughian [BC] 32. Black Autumn – Losing the Sun/Harvest of Our Bitter Labours [BC] 33. Black Autumn/Forodren – In the Vast Emptiness (Split) [BC] 34. Party Cannon – Partied in Half (Reissue) [BC] 35. Party Cannon – Bong Hit Hospitalisation [BC] 36. Netra – Melancolie Urbaine [BC] 37. Archgoat – All Christianity Ends [BC] 38. Katie Dey – Forever Music (x2) [BC] 39. An Autumn for Crippled Children – Trust EP [BC] 40. Dark Tranquillity – Fiction (x2) [BC] 41. Goblin Soap – Goblin Offensive [BC] 42. Morke – We Are the River [BC] 43. Cat Tower – Her Majesty’s Tower [BC] 44. Fuck the Facts – Misery [BC] 45. Fuck the Facts – Radiation Sickness (Repulsion Cover) [BC] 46. With Malice – Hail Kraken [BC] 47. Outre – Ghost Chants [BC] 48. Yfel – Beneath The Mountain’s Vigil [BC] 49. Solstafir – Berdreyminn [BC]
50. Iravu – A Fate Worse Than Home (x4) [BC]
I can’t stop fucking listening to this album. Iravu’s A Fate Worse Than Home is a science-fiction hero’s journey concept album (to simplify it). It’s a very heavy album in the lyrics department. Musically this is one of those albums that somehow stitches together different bits of extreme metal to create something that is a weird Frankenstein’s Monster of awesome. At the core of it all is blackened death metal, but of a technical and progressive variety that brings it up into the Opeth/Death/A Modern Prometheus territories, then Hareesh somehow infuses it all with cosmic synth, ambient, trad metal (riffz) and a bit of psychedelia via the songs “Fear And Lead” and “Home” and it turns into a ten word genre. Hit the Bandcamp logo below to buy/stream.
51. Daedric Chamber/Witches Forest – Keepers of Nature (Split) [BC] 52. Ov Enochian – Broken [CD] 53. Death – Human [CD] 54. Ancient VVisdom – Sacrificial [BC] 55. Ancient VVisdom – Deathlike [BC]
Vernal Ecosphere is cosmic synth that shows you faraway intergalactic ports teeming with life, beings from all over the galaxy, and takes you across the vast expanses of space to get to them. Finite Planetary Possibilities will undoubtedly be fuelling a lot of my own writing soon, as well as fuelling my descent deeper into exploring cosmic synth. Hit the Bandcamp logo below to buy/stream.
57. Fog Castle/Foglord/Fogweaver – In the Kingdom of Fog (Split) [BC] 58. Fogweaver – Magelight [BC] 59. Lust Hag – Lust Hag (x3) [BC/CS] 60. Weald + Woe – The Fate of Kings and Men [BC] 61. Faery Ring – Mys & Frox (x2) [BC] 62. A Rose Dying in The Rain – Cartas de Melancolía [BC] 63. Abyssal Slumber – Demo I [BC] 64. Adept – Inner Alchemy [BC] 65. Dark Cascadian Forests – Cloaked in Darkness, Cloaked in Rain [BC] 66. Das Kazchen – Das Kazchen (x2) [BC] 67. Snowspire – Approaching Hearthfire [BC] 68. Sylfvr – A Nice Evening Stroll / Soul Vapour (x3) [BC] 69. Lust Hag – Lascivious Nocturnality [BC] 70. The Presidents of the United States of America – II [CD] 71. Wintersleep - Untitled [BC] 72. Fuck the Facts – Legacy of Hopelessness [BC] 73. Fief – II [BC] 74. Fiadh Productions – Queen of a New Age: An Enya Tribute [BC] 75. Imagine A Boot – No Safe Space For Hate [BC] 76. Gråt Strigoi – The Prophetic Silence [BC] 77. Ritual - The Resurrection [CD] 78. Cygnets - Prophets [CD] 79. Lilyum - Ultimatum [CD] 80. Corpsessed - The Dagger & The Chalice [BC] 81. Corpsessed - Untitled EP [BC] 82. Angel - HRT(errror) [Soundcloud] 83. Burning Bethlehem - The Unholy Path to Hell [BC] 84. Jim Noone - Soft Celtic Winds (x2) [BC] 85. Altar in Darkness - Melodies of Sorrow and Hate [BC] 86. An Autumn for Crippled Children - Try Not To Destroy Everything You Love [BC] 87. Katatonia - Dead End Kings [BC] 88. Lust Hag - Mistress in the Mirror [BC] 89. Wrought Iron - Rejoice and Transcend [CD] 90. Adrasteis/In Nacht Und Eis - Eisblut (Split) [BC] 91. Emasculator - The Disfigured and the Divine [BC] 92. Tiamat - Sumerian City [BC] 93. Blackbraid - II [BC] 94. The Taxpayers - “Circle Protector”/“Evil Everywhere” [BC] 95. A Few Good Records - Now That’s What I Call Treason 47 [BC] 96. Terror Toons/Vater’s Vibrators - .rotatoR (Split) [BC] 97. No Problem - Your Eyes [BC] 98. No Problem - Paranoid Times [BC] 99. No Problem - And Now This [BC] 100. Willow Tales - Songs for the Friends We Made Along the Way [CS] 101. Gladekeeper - Yearntale [CS] 102. G.L.O.S.S. - Demo [BC] 103. Katatonia - Sky Void of Stars [BC] 104. Meadow Grove - The Golden Stag [CS] 105. :wumpscut: - Body Census [BC] 106. :wumpscut: - Wreath of Barbs [BC] 107. Ahna - Crimson Dawn [CS] 108. Pipesmoker - Harvested Memories [BC] 109. Noire - Dark Reverence (Remastered) [BC] 110. Dark Magician - A Very Private Affair [BC] 111. Snawfuss/Foglord - North Hill (Split) [BC] 112. Spiral Skies - Blues for a Dying Planet [BC] 113. Barshasketh - Antinomian Ascetiscm [BC] 114. Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts [CD] 115. Ancient VVisdom - A Godlike Inferno [BC] 116. Partholon - The Ocean Pours In [BC] 117. Faith No More - The Real Thing [CD] 118. Black XIII – 3 Song EP [CD] 119. Viva Emptiness – Katatonia (x2) [BC] 120. Buried in Desolation – Buried in Desolation [BC] 121. Afsky – Om hundrede år (x2) [BC] 122. Agariik – Reality is Hierarchy [BC] 123. Altars of Grief – Iris [BC] 124. Blackbraid – “Warriors” [BC] 125. Dimmu Borgir – Stormblåst [CD] 126. Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero [CD] 127. Daear – In the Depths of Nothingness [CD] 128. Iravu – Unreleased 2022 Demo (x2) [Discord] 129. Fivewilldie – Slung From A Tree [CD] 130. Fivewilldie – Year of the Dead [CD] 131. Adele – 21 [CD] 132. King Woman – Doubt (x2) [BC] 133. Arsis – Leper’s Caress [CD] 134. Black Pestilence – Urban Hell Rhythmics [CD] 135. Scimitar – Black Waters [CD] 136. Tyrant – Limitations [CD] 137. Tekarra – Tekarra [CD] 138. Slough Feg - New Organon [BC] 139. Snowcloak – Bound by Frost [BC] 140. Paradise Lost – Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us [BC] 141. Helvellyn – Hordes of White Light [CD] 142. Tumultuous Ruin – An Abscess on the Heart of the State [BC] 143. Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination [CD] 144. My Dying Bride – The Light at the End of the World (x2) [BC] 145. Vreid – V [CD]
Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes. Photo by Dustin Ekman.
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King starts off in a fashion we Constant Readers are familiar with. An older man encounters a younger, single mom. She has an issue, he’s kind enough to help, maybe this will lead to a complete subversion of everything we think is happening? Yeah, it sure does. All three—man, mom, and baby, as well as a bunch of other people—get run over by a Mercedes and die in the cold, foggy parking lot at a job fair.
And that’s how it starts, remember. That’s twelve pages.
Enter Bill Hodges, a retired police detective. He’s sitting in his La-Z-Boy and considering killing himself, but then he gets a letter from the perpetrator of one of the few cases Hodges hasn’t solved, the Mercedes Killer. This gets Hodges going, gets him out of his depression and gets him looking into things. Looking into things he legally should not be, mind you.
We are introduced to characters we obviously are supposed to cheer for: Jerome, the black kid who is friends with Hodges; Holly Gibney, the middle-aged woman with OCD and possibly other mental health afflictions; Jerome’s mom and sister and dog; Janey, Holly’s cousin. We are also introduced to a pair of characters who we almost immediately despise, Janey’s aunt and uncle. The uncle is a nobody in the grand scheme of things, but hot damn is Aunt Charlotte a fucking cunt. I almost wished she would have run into Mr Mercedes at some point in time. This leads me to think that Stephen has been reading his son Joe’s works a lot, because that dude can write some seriously shitty humans. I almost threw my copy of The Fireman at the wall because of one of the antagonists is such a shitpile.
The plot thickens. People we don’t expect to die, do, and in so doing the hinges holding Mr. Mercedes’s brain together come off. Shit gets real, and shit hits the fan, and we, the reader, get hit in the face with it. The ending of the book comes fast and hard, and in a typical Stephen King fashion: adrenaline floods the reader, and the closer we get to the end we’re asking how it’s going to end, and we know goddamn well that it’s not going to be good for everyone involved. There’s high stakes involved in a way Constant Readers are used to (Insomnia, anyone?) but a few were lost on me a little bit because this book is from a decade ago and I already own the sequels. I am very excited to read Finders Keepers, the next book in the Bill Hodges Trilogy, which I’m reading next.
After work on a payday awhile ago, I was told by my boss I was getting a transfer. He had no idea I had filed for one, and I told him that I didn’t. I liked my job and I figured if I stayed long enough and worked my ass off (which I did) I would eventually become assistant manager. My boss and I were both stumped about my transfer, but it was put through by people higher up than him, so there was nothing else to do but go home and pack my belongings. There wasn’t much, I lived very minimalistic.
Two days later, Sunday, the movers plopped me into a brand new two bedroom corner apartment above an old man with a small dog and below a young woman, also with a small dog, but louder. Both suites beside me were empty. The walls were painfully bright white. The smell of fresh paint was sharp. The movers, hired by Omnibank and not me, put all my stuff mostly away, I just finished the laundry and small things.
Monday I reported for work, and found out my new boss, Centola, was not going to be there until Thursday. A young teller named Jamie handed me a file with my name on it, and welcomed me. Inside it was my hiring package detailing my promotion to assistant manager—not just a transfer. Jamie once again proved invaluable by showing me around the place and introducing me to the other three tellers and our security guard, a Korean War veteran named Gerry. I soon found out that Gerry was a full thirty years older than he looked and was not just a veteran in Korea but a hero in World War II that made Rambo look like a damsel in distress. He was in his nineties and still packing a sidearm, his own teeth, and his own hair.
Tuesday was basically the same. I was still learning the names of the tellers, and meeting the regular customers of this Omnibank branch, so by the end of the day my brain was fried. I asked everyone if they’d join me for a drink at the nearest bar before we went home, and everyone joined in.
A round of beers later, with a ginger ale for me, and our crew dispersed. Madison, Gabby, and Clinton went home, while Jamie and I stayed for another. She let her gaze linger at times. I knew I was being flirted with, but did not lead on. Mixing work and love rarely worked out, especially since I was a full decade older than Jamie. The temptation was there, however, don’t get me wrong. She was beautiful; red hair, blue eyes, pale as hell, the thick thighs that save lives, Scottish accent.
Wednesday came and Jamie was giving me a cold shoulder, or at least one that had chilled a little after the night before. The others smiled at me like conspirators. The whole day was awkward and time passed so slowly that it felt like a twelve hour shift in a coal mine.
I was nicely surprised around eleven when a pair of elderly men came in, two of my old clients from my old branch. They decided they wanted to follow me to this newer, bigger Omnibank, despite being a full fifteen minute bus ride extra. After that conversation the day began to drag again.
I invited everyone out for drinks, but this time only Jamie took up my offer. She again seemed flirtatious, and this time I called her on it, explaining why I felt work and romance didn’t work out. She understood, or so she said. The rest of the night was great, with no more awkwardness.
Thursday came, and I finally met Centola. She arrived at the Omnibank branch shortly after I had. She came right up to me and introduced herself, handshake at the ready, pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t middle aged. She also handed me a coffee from the roaster down the road, sipping one of her own. She told me she already knew me by my work, and that was why she had requested my transfer, and given me a promotion.
I’m sure I blushed, red like a clown’s nose. Never had I been given such praise; it was quite embarrassing but part of me also loved it. I think I stammered out a thank you, and she walked away with a nod.
The rest of the day is a blur. I was on pure autopilot until well after I got home. I know I met a few people, more long-time clients of this Omnibank branch, but I cannot put a single name to any face. I also know I ordered a pizza, because my first real memory after meeting Centola was putting the empty box aside and turning the TV up. I was surprised that it was a large box, and not an individual size. I was watching wrestling, and the main event was about to come on, which meant it was quarter to eight. Pretty much twelve hours of a day, smudged to strange colours in my memory. I watched Kenny Omega defend the AEW World Championship against Ricochet, then went to my fridge. I became strangely aware I had no real emotional connection to anything at the time, I had become very cold to my surroundings, and I took a root beer out and cracked it open. How the hell, I thought, did I lose half a day from a compliment?
The emotional impact came with the taste of vanilla notes, and was like a bullet. Fast and painful, small at first then ripping a huge hole as it exited. The realization that I had fallen in love with Centola was not like some majestic dawning. It was like being in the shadow of a thousand suns. I knew love at first sight didn’t exist, and thought love in general probably didn’t either. Yet at the thought of Centola and her beautiful brown skin and dark hair and alluring scent, I lost myself.
I knelt down, the fridge still open and the root beer spilling out onto the floor. I could not reason how something that didn’t exist could exist, and within me no less.
I cleaned up my mess and went to bed. I knew what I had to do in the morning.
Friday dawned and I woke up at six, showered, had a smoothie and went to the grocery store on the way to work. I bought the twelve freshest, reddest roses, which were wrapped with a card and chocolates. I went to work, put them all on Centola’s desk, and waited. When she got to work she waved at me, gave me another coffee, then went to her office. Five minutes later, but feeling like fifty, Centola called my extension and asked me into her office. My heart fluttered.
When I went in she had her feet on the desk and was reclined in her chair. The roses were in one hand, and she was eating chocolates with the other.
She looked me in the eye, and nodded. She asked me if my coffee was good. I said it was. She told me to go grab it and come back. I did. I sat down in the chair in front of her desk. Again she nodded, slowly, and licked her lips. Her tongue was thin, forked. Immediately fear flooded my body and I knew I was in over my head. She stood, our eyes locked until she told me to look at the floor. I could do nothing but obey, and I liked it. She told me to do lots of things after, and I obeyed, and I liked it.
Afterwards, both of us dressed again, she picked up her phone and whispered with a smile. A moment later Jamie came into the office, and Centola showed her how submissive I was. Jamie tried to give me the same commands, and I obeyed her too. Then Madison after. Centola told me to drink my hours-cold coffee after Clinton was done, and then the blur begins again.
When I came to, I was in a bed. It wasn’t mine. The emotional coldness was back. The overhead light was on and I was naked as a jaybird. The room was cool, the window open. The night outside was dark, a few stars in the sky. I sat up, stiff everywhere, made my way to my feet and went to the window. It looked out onto a dark alley. The door behind me opened, and I spun. Centola looked at me, noticing my stiffness, and came forward.
Her legs didn’t move, and she was a full inch above the ground. She smiled, her sharp teeth bright, and took my stiffness into her hand. She said the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard.
“You cannot leave. You are mine.” She gave me a coffee, and I drank it gratefully.
(Dustin Ekman, June 5, 2023)
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