No Remorse and the Kydone Battle Disc

Image: Artwork from a dream I had of The Kydone Battle Disc and some characters from inside the Holy Temple of the Reds.

I’m under a crescent moon today, literally. Me and Ezra are back in BOK licking our wounds from the first Dead Rabbit video shoot. During one of my starry nights on white mountain, I awoke from a beautiful dream… I saw it.. the Kydone Battle Disc. For those who don’t know, I’ve been slowly working on a novel and somewhere in Europa, the great Diamond City, there’s a sacred temple. It’s the training dojo for the Reds. It’s a rather mystical place, fairly Zen like and inside the temple is a translucent metal disc that hovers in the air with magic. It’s called the Kydone battle Disc. I just wanted to make note of it today as I see it finding it’s way into some sequences of the book. After all, Diamonds Hadder has so much to learn when he arrives in the diamond city.. something tells me he’ll be spending some time on the battle disc. We’ll see.

No Remorse: Well it’s official. I’ve signed with No Remorse Records for the physical distribution of the “Beyond the Breakers” record on double Vinyl and CD formats. I’m rather excited to be working with them and ever grateful of course. With no time to waste, we’ve already begun working on the Vinyl as it will take a few months to press. For me that means taking a breather from the two music videos I’ve been tirelessly working on and getting into the design of the “Breakers” vinyl. It will side track me a few weeks but it’s a fun creative endeavor and I feel like I owe it to the record to be involved in its design. To finish what I started so to say. It took a while but some of the ripples from my rocks are finding their way back to my lonely shore. A quick shout out to Yiannis Dolas at Rock Pages and Michael Kohsiek at Deaf Forever, two true metal road warriors, thank you guys for lighting the first fires. To those of you who've reached out to me with kind words and who've helped spread the word over the last few months or offered to help in any way, Thank you! Every little thing matters to me, always. And finally to Andreas and Chris, thanks for contacting me and for believing in the record. Feel free to check out the No Remorse site, it’s a temple of its own, constructed for honest reasons.. a holding tower for the things that dreams are made of. I’m honored to find a small place there now. On the shelves in such a hall. Thanks NR for creating such a holy place. You can read the official Press Release on the No Remorse Site here. Insta: @noremorserecords

Tour stuff: well, I’ve been approached about a little European tour and some festivals for next year. I’m very grateful for the offers although I’m not sure if Ezra can fit in a plane, so we’ll see. The logistics of flying a band from LA to Europe are a bit daunting, especially traveling with a fanglore. I have an idea to open the fuselage to fit my friendly feline faithfully in full feet first (grumble grumble) but In the mean time, here in BOK.. I’ll be stocking up on “dragon feet treats” which might be needed to coax her onto one of those flying contraptions if we can solve some bartering riddles between now and then. We’ll see. I'm working on it. One thing at a time I suppose.

Hadder: “No, I’m not talking about you girl.” (Softly) I forget how well she can hear.

Ezra: Grumble Grumble!

Hadder: "Oh Nothing"

It’s a late report for me today, normally I’m writing early in the dark hours of the morning before things start to move. I like that time. But today, I’m watching the sunset through the ocean grass outside my tower of tiny dreams. Bok is beautiful tonight. I have so much to do still yet I’m very content with my Grasslandian tree bark tea this evening. Ezra is gazing into the late sun.. sniffing the air and watching the hummingbirds as they yip and yap over territorial concerns. I’m thinking about my tree on white mountain… the one I awoke near… the one from my dreams.. as it’s surely bracing for another winter storm. Perhaps it’s something from my past life…. A sacred place that I can only wonder about. Soon as this vinyl is out from my fingertips, I’ll be returning to see it again for my final dead rabbit film shoots. I’ve mentioned this before, but I buried an old box their with a picture of things that only I know about. It’s safely hidden below some rocks on white mountain. A gift for the witch on the only mountain. It’s almost time to open it again… or maybe it’s just time to leave something new… for her.

Anywho, you know me, I’ll be here working away on the next chapter of this fateful endeavor. Feel free to say hello.

I miss Zabble.

(a quiet whisper is suddenly heard inside the rustling wind)

“Stay the course young hadder, stay the course.”

I heard that, master.

Farewell

-j

L.I.T.R.

Image: Some things from LITR Music Video.

"It’s been a few days here in Grygar canyon, it's not looking like we'll arrive for All-Hallows night as first intended... me and Ezra have have following a strange light through the notch. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. At first I thought it to be a simple illusion… as though perhaps my eyes were just seeing things. Two nights ago it entered our campsite… we were sleeping and I awoke to see it hovering over Ezra as she slept… it was then I realized this was no play of lights … a magic trick perhaps… I think it’s alive, it vibrates and can seem to change color and size.. I do believe it’s investigating us. For what reason, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem dangerous. I get the sense it’s leading us somewhere… it seems to stay in the forest just far enough away from our camp. Each day as we start moving again, I see it keeping ahead of us… Ezra is well aware of it as well… she lifts her nose and smells the air in the direction of it and occasionally gives me a look as if to say “I see it too”. At first I felt perhaps it was following us but at some point it seems we’re following it. It’s leading us to the mouth of the red river basin.. the gateway to great white mountain overpass. We all seem to be traveling to the same place. Why? Hmmm… what is the reason for all this? I thought it best I write this little mention of this orb in the event things go horribly wrong… or wonderfully right. Tomorrow we’ll start to climb and who knows… maybe there’s something up there I need to find or see. Ezra seems a little on edge… we can both see White mountain in the distance… it looks cold up there.

Well, I best put this away and get moving. It’s a long road ahead and Ezra is currently grumbling impatiently at my slow pace.

“Well… I hear you over there, I’m coming”

“grumble grumble”.

I suppose we have a new friend with us on this journey. Farewell for now.

-Diamonds Hadder

Grasslandian Tree Bark Tea: Deaf Forever

Image: No, I didn't make the cover, but here's a little image I put together to celebrate my recent interview in the German Deaf Forever magazine. @deaf.forever

Good morning, it’s Friday in Golliak canyon.. a beautiful campfire crackle is all I hear over the faint hum of the western winds that are crossing through this canyon notch. I awoke early to the morning hum of Warmoth songs in the distance. Ezra is sleeping although she wakes frequently at each crackle and pop of the burning hazel wood fire. I’m close to her because she’s quite warm and dare I say cuddly.. although I wont say that to her.. she likes to think she’s fierce and scary. We're on the move again… plotting a meeting with an ancient moon on white mountain. It’s a culmination of a lot of things… the pinnacle of what I’ve been working on. I hope I can get there in time. Winter is nipping on these first days of autumn… soon the clocks will change and the darkness of 2024 will slowly creep over this fateful year of highs and lows. There’s a real poetry to time… one season connected to each before and after… like a lonely word that needs others to survive and have meaning. A phrase before and a phrase after that in harmony describe our existence. I’m writing a story and I’m almost done with the first chapter. The “Breakers” are almost complete. A little update today:

To Germany with love: On August 5th I was contacted by Micheal Kohsiek regarding an interview for a German heavy metal magazine called “Deaf Forever”. And so this week the magazine article came out along with a very flattering review of my “Beyond the Breakers” record. I posted it below. Ya know, I’ve been around in my life… I’ve had a lot of bad reviews on projects I’ve done over the years. I’ve done everything I possibly could to succeed as a song writer and musician in my former life.. I worked relentlessly… throwing caution to the wind… sleeping in rehearsal rooms… sacrificed many a relationship with many a people because of my ambitions and will… I’ve quit… I’ve given up… been lost… been counted out more times than I can remember… told I wasn’t good enough… many many times… even by my closest of friends… but, I always seem to find that fire again. It never really dies. Life is funny, the hardships over time really do mold us into something. In truth we all do suck… and we all really are amazingly awesome at the same time. I think in order to cross the bridge… you really must understand that. It’s easy to turn around and make friends with the doubters and naysayers of your dreams.. to question yourself and succumb to the keg of ale in a drunken midnight stupor and gossip your life away over what could of beens and what could bees. Or… you can just keep walking with proper blinders on… inside those blinders is the vision you know and feel in your heart… it’s different for everyone. There are small victories in life and harsh defeats.. it’s inevitable… as long as you’re not dead yet, rise again I say and look to that next hill… and turn off the noise around you. Just listen to the wind and the low rumble of the streams that flow from the mountain tops. Obey your dream as silly as it may be. Your dream is as real and as unpredictable as that mountain stream. It’s amazing and all that stands before you and it… is time. Not your enemies… not your shortcomings, not any obstacles, no, you’ve been designed already good enough for dream hunting, we all have been. Time is your greatest ally as you drift down the river. Use it my friend.

Anyway, sorry, I lost myself there a moment. I do that. I think I’ve been drinking too much Grasslandian tree bark tea. Ezra thinks it makes me crazy. She often “grumbles” when I reach for it. But I love it so.

Well, thank you to Micheal for the interview and for caring enough to ask me questions. He’s one of the first people to hear my record and reach out to me offering to help spread the word about it in Europe and for that I’m somewhat indebted to him. Him and some others. Metal music has a way of connecting people. It’s a strange unseen power really. I know it all too well myself. I’ve now become of wielder of such power, so to say. I’m humbled by it.

All Hallows: On Halloween night I planned to release the first of the 2 music videos I’ve been working on. The first video will be for the song called “Long is the Road” That was the plan. However, some things behind the scenes have been happening that could shift the release back so that it coincides with a physical release of the “Beyond the Breakers” vinyl . I don’t know yet if that’s going to happen, but I will say, the videos will be something special to me and a direct reflection of the “Breakers” record. For now I’ll say “All-Hallows” night, but if things change, I’ll be sure and update the timeline. The first video takes me back to New England during the hey day of American Heavy Metal. We’ll get to see Hadder on his Bokonian hillsides and hear from an old mage who was the original creator, the real east coast memory maker, seer and appointed voice of heavy metal in Rhode Island. The “Rabbit” video will show the aftermath of my life and the hill and ashes I once called home. I’m hoping that video finally puts old ghosts to bed for me. Life is but wishful thinking.

Well, that’s all for today. My tea is cold and my morning fire is but a smoldering ember of it’s former self. Time for some new wood. I’ve included my interview in “Deaf Forever” below, feel free to send me the translation, I haven’t a clue what it says.

Just a little more time, it’s almost done, Farewell friends

-j