2019, the year my first relationship started. After becoming acquainted with a girl from school,
we began texting and a big part of our initial interaction was our sharing of music with eachother.
Deftones' 'Change' was the first song I had linked and thus began her lasting enjoyment of the group.

While I still enjoy Deftones somewhat, my deep affinity for them was bound to end during this year,
a big step into the 'extreme' end of metal. I began the year off fairly deep into my 'Slipknot'
binge phase. This lasted until near the end of the year, during which I was walking around in rubber
combat boots and dressing as closely as I could to Mick Thompson lol. Concurrently, I was very into
Ministry and their brand of Industrial Metal. I scored a copy of 'The Land Of Rape and Honey' sometime
late in the previous year, and while I enjoyed it and played it excessively, I was more into their
subsequent two albums, released in 1989 and 1992. I fluctuated between those two biggies, Slipknot and
Ministry, until during a spell where I was favoring the former quite heavily I was introduced to Death
Metal. In an interview with Mick from Slipknot, he was asked about records he considered to be the most
brutal / his favorite 'speeding' CDs, to which he responded with Deicide's self-titled (1990) and
Malevolent Creation's 'Envenomed'. This had to have been around the middle of the year, because I
distinctly remember walking in the dark frequently between mine and my then-girlfriend's house,
blaring 'In Hell I Burn' while walking vigorously in my combat boots, sweating. I began learning about
the genre and studying its' notable releases (a lot of Florida bands lol) and discovered bands like
Suffocation, Immolation, Gorguts, Cannibal Corpse, Monstrosity, etc.

The Dayton Ohio shooting perpetrated by Connor Betts was my introduction to Pornogrind. Almost opposite
of what most probably would after hearing of the perverse, obscene, mysoginist a mass killer was into, I
immediately began immersing myself in it. I believe I was already peripherally aware of Goregrind;
definitely Grindcore at this time, but it was at this stage that I practically transcended Slipknot
and fully embraced Extreme Metal; Slam, a genre I had actually been queued into the existence of which's
for some time on account of Daelen being the unofficial king of, was officially brought to the forefront
of my playlists after seeing The Punk Rock MBA's video on it. I was still largely a Grind head, and
bands like Anal Cunt, Napalm Death (especially at this time), Rompeprop, Gut, and Nasum were the
undisputed masters of my tastes near the closing of 2019. But then I discovered a band that undubitably
changed the trajectory of my music making / consuming journey forever; Last Days Of Humanity.