Which side are you on? Nate and Jacki observe Labor Day (month) with a listening party for the legendary album Kentucky by black metal icon Panopticon.

Music Mentions:

• “Kara no Bara” – Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist – Saidan
• Moonlight Sorcery
• Dawn of the Dragonstar – Twilight Force

We discuss:

• Panopticon’s vital stats
• Austin Lunn’s trademark authenticity
• Bluegrass meets black metal
• “Bodies Under the Falls” and its inspiration, a local-to-Kentucky legend that Cherokee women and children were massacred at Yahoo Falls. This story is unsubstantiated, but plenty of stories about the US government’s abuse and removal of Indigenous people from the region are substantiated. If you’d like to learn more, the Kentucky Heritage Council has the following resource: https://heritage.ky.gov/Documents/Native_History_KyTeachers.pdf
• “Come All Ye Coal Miners” and its original composer Sarah Ogan Gunning
• “Black Soot and Red Blood” and its inspiration, the 1930s so-called “Harlan Wars” coal mine strikes, followed by other famous strikes in the 1970s and as recently as 2019, plus the rise and fall (and rise and fall) of unions in Harlan County, Kentucky. For a good rundown on the topic, see https://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa
• Panopticon’s sampling of documentary and interview clips highlighting the real voices and stories of miners
• Movie Mention: Oscar winner Harlan County USA
• “Which Side Are You On?” and the history of this union anthem, its composer Florence Reese, and Panopticon’s choice to arrange it with “O Death,” an American folk song with likely roots in European folk songs
• “Killing the Giants as They Sleep” and “Black Waters” and the impact of coal mining on the Kentucky landscape and environment, plus Nate has to summarize “Black Waters” because Jacki will cry if she talks about it
• American folk and American black metal’s lineage from European folk and black metal: It’s all related!
• If we wrote a book based on this album, what would it be about?

Our Favorite Protest Songs:

• Jacki:
• Gadaar – Bloodywood
• Refuse/Resist – Sepultura
• Wildflower – Witch Club Satan (“You don’t give up! You don’t give up!”
• Nate:
• Speak Godamnit – Vreid
• Violent Revolution – Kreator
• Riot – Riot

Read the cards (and the book) with us in October’s book club episode in which we discuss Arcana Academy by Elise Kova, a tarot-themed magical school/heist drama romantasy edgelordy merch-ploy of a book with a savage cliffhanger. But is it metal?