Blog Post // 2025-09-21

Be'lakor Concert, Favourite Band Releases Album, Fall always returns!

It's that time of year when the leaves change, and something inside me shifts too. 

This year, I lost someone big to me, my aunt! She was "my person," and she was magical! I remember when I was a kid and she was into pop music. At a certain point, she realized I was into metal. She bought me a gold chain with a gold guitar on it. I don't have it anymore, but that was exactly how she was. She encouraged people with whatever they were into. She didn't judge. She saw the little important things. I have appreciated her over the years. A lady struggling with so much chronic physical pain, but she always saw other people's struggles. She was a poet and had a great sense of humour. She was so lovely! I will love her forever!

My son is making me so proud! He is very into music and is playing so much stuff on guitar now. He only started to really play seriously in January. It is a beautiful thing to see your own flesh and blood enjoying music in a way you can understand. I swear I never pushed in on him. He is rocking an Ozzy Osbourne hat and Megadeth shirt much of the time! I suppose my nerdy genes might have rubbed off on him... He read 7 books this summer.

My favourite band, which I sure hope makes it to Canada one day, put out an album. IN MOURNING- THE IMMORTAL.. I was a little concerned, considering they have a new drummer, but he seems to be on point. During my first listen, by the fourth song, I felt like I was about to burst into tears. They did such a great job of capturing the emotions I hold deep inside. I find they express the music in a way that goes outward and opens up, rather than how some music clamps down and puts pressure on. There is something freeing about them. They encapsulate a journey, with both music and vocals. When they released The Sojourner, I had the song in my head constantly, with just one listen through. I like that they have low death growls and riffs, drawn out doomy parts, black metal trem picking, stand out solos, and the progressiveness of the clean vocals mixed together in the perfect portions. They used both vocalist so well on this album. Though I know most consider them melodeath, (and it isn't a bad word) there is something more intriguing and groovy about them, that makes them stand out to me. I love their use of Jackson guitars. I recommend you check them out!! https://youtu.be/Gp1-FzCJvQY?si=BvJAqEM6wy1Z6xEH  https://youtu.be/TWJW0xKXhPc?si=uaGNeP1943j0b4Wz   https://youtu.be/tzoxvT85vPw?si=Q-gk_Z7Xr9e21BBP   https://inmourning.bandcamp.com/ (Yes, I am listening to them as I am typing)

I said it before. I am struggling with my health. I recently got another diagnosis. PPPD, which is another name for "we have no idea why you feel off balance every day". If any of you have chronic illness, you know you learn to operate through it, as hard as it is.

And I finally went to a concert!!! It has been a few years. It was at the same place I saw Swallow the Sun , Lee's Palace in Toronto. Sept. 12, I made my way to Toronto and had a great experience seeing BE'LAKOR live! I knew I wouldn't be meeting them as they made it clear that you had to buy VIP tickets to talk to them and get a picture. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't like to pay to say hi to people. A person I know from the same town, however, did pay them and got a signed poster and a picture with them. I was in the front row, right between George and Steve. I could almost read their setlist from where I was standing. If I was just a little taller. Actually, funny story is I have seen some pretty good footage posted from the show, I know exactly where I was, but I was shorter than everyone around me so you can't see me. And it was a great experience for me. I thought the crowd would be serious. Not quite what I was expecting. There was a lot of moshing and crowd surfing, and the people that made it to the stage that way, went directly over my head. The band seemed to be getting a chuckle out of the rowdiness of the crowd. And the crowd was chanting along with the guitar parts, which also brought a smile to the band's faces. I like to see a happy band. A frustrating moment, however, was when a very drunk guy kept making his way up to the stage by crowd surfing. At one point, he talked his other drunk friends into lifting him onto the stage, right beside me, and they obliged. He tromped onto Steve's cord and bent the prongs, and he had to scramble to bend them back and get things back on track. This drunk guy then jumped back off the stage directly onto my foot. I enjoyed the opening band, who appeared to love the performance as well. Their name was Solemn Vision. Be'lakor played 9 songs; In Parting, Venator, Abeyance, Sun's Delusion, Valence, Remnants, Neither Shape, Smoke of Many Fires, and Countless Skies. During the encore, Shaun came out wearing a Toronto Maple Leaf jersey, and I thought we had seen the last of the drunk guy, but he made it up one last time onto the stage. Bela'kor seemed like they were having a great time, the place was in full motion, heads banging together. It was a grand time! https://belakor.bandcamp.com/album/coherence

My ears are happy! Hope you are enjoying some great music!