So delighted about the love for my zora OCs!! Thank you everyone that liked the post and added such encouraging tags ilu 💜 I Finally had some time to revisit Rudo; both to give a proper try to the tentacle “dreads” style hair that only existed in the full body concept roughs earlier and try a couple options for colour palettes. Gold eyes is for sure locked in but coat…. Hm

Decorating the tentacles with metalwork is incredibly fun but I think the look of the mohawk fin is just more striking?? It’s a hard choice tho cuz the lack of ears is a little odd lookin even if I had some frilly fin sorta bits in that area. But the feeling the two styles give is just super different.

And to answer this one, Rudo and Kevel (current but not locked in name for Zora 2, the exhausted soldier/guard. I’ve decided against mercenary) in their “canons” have almost certainly never met. Probably. That said, there's a scenario... (Elaborating on this answer turned out longer than it looked in the draft so I'm putting it under a cut)

~By Reek of STOOM~

Still from These Final Hours (2013)

As we continue our week-long Doomed & Stoned team retrospective on the music that moved us in 2020, the notorious Reek of STOOM has his favorite albums broken down by month by dreadful month!  (Editor)

January:  ELDER DRUID – Golgotha

Golgotha by Elder Druid

Bellicose Belfast outfit Elder Druid breach the salt lines to manifest their virulent breed of doomed sludge in their latest offering, Golgotha. Every yard is as epic as its title. Its power and majesty bleeds through every low-fuzzed corpuscle and sinew. Golgotha is the Sound of Wrath. Elder Druid is the Sound of Doom. Faultless!

February:  SLIFT – Ummon

UMMON by SLIFT

The French penchant for Spacey Psychedelia goes into full-blown Ion Drive for this dejeuner delicieux. Roaring space rock workouts, krautrock meanderings, and atmospheric ambience. Stunning!

March:  THEY WATCH US FROM THE MOON – Moon Doom

Moon Doom! ( The full experience.) by They Watch Us From The Moon

Kansas-based Doom entourage They Watch Us From The Moon! deliver a rich cornucopia of sound on their debut album, Moon Doom! -- a virulent mixture of heavy, slow riffs, and space rock theatrics. TWUFTM have brought us one of the best debut releases I’ve heard in a long while and they should not be ignored.

April:  JG THIRLWELL & SIMON STEENSLAND – Oscillospira

Oscillospira by JG Thirlwell & Simon Steensland

The Right Honorable Lord Foetus brings his considerable and prolific experience to this extraordinary avant garde work. Broody, mesmerising, and off-kilter, smarting with anguish and glowing with epicness!

May:  VROVL – La Chasse au Marais/De Eendenjacht

La Chasse Au Marais / De Eendenjacht by Vrovl

Belgian outfit VROVL pull out a masterpiece of intricate, top-notch progressive rock -- deftly spanning the bridge between pastoral, symphonic, and progressive metal in a way that is both unique and breathtaking!

June:  ORGÖNE – MOS/FET

ORGÖNE - MOS/FET by HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Records

A bewildering, dazzling and bizarre array of songs, noises and shiftless innovation from this amazing French band. The gamut of prog, krautrock, musique concrete, and space rock are despatched with real flair and musicianship!

July:  THE EX PAST – The Experimental Experience

The Experimental Experience by The Ex Past

Expansive, ballsy heavy psych from Russia that delivers tonal treats and trippy trap-doors a-plenty. A definite head-melter!

August:  MOTORPSYCHO – The All Is One

No intros needed for this spectacular group of Norwegians. Confident, challenging, brimming with pure invention...grandiose is the word!

September:  MOTHER’S CAKE – Cyberfunk!

Cyberfunk! by Mother's Cake

More delectable Austrian Prog from this ridiculously talented ensemble. A fusion of classic '70s hard prog, fuzzy psych, and sonic theatrics that will have you bouncing!

October:  KEVEL – Mutatis Mutandis

Mutatis Mutandis by kevel

Poland’s grip on the stoner-doom genre was fastened to death-like by this incredible release. Heavy as a bag of anvils, crawling through depths, valleys, the void, and beyond with its breathtaking scope!

November:  SUN CROW – Quest For Oblivion

Quest for Oblivion by Sun Crow

The Seattle stoner doomsters pull out an incredible display of Power, Craft and skill! A fantastic blend of sludge, doom, and stoner metal along with psychedelic flair make this a very serious AOTY contender!

December:  THE AMORPHOUS ANDROGYNOUS – We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal

We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal by The Amorphous Androgynous

Kevel | Mutatis Mutandis | 23rd October, 2020

Greek Progressive Sludge Doom Metal

Artwork by Kuba Sokolski

Mutatis Mutandis by KEVEL

Science fiction and prog rock are ready bedfellows, both possessed of intense enthusiasms for technology, narratives of grand scale and a strange mix of mandarin High Modernist sensibilities (Wells and Asimov, King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator) and mass cultural, middle-brow appeal (Orson Scott Card, ELP). Heavy music and SF have enjoyed equally long-standing affinities, from those early-1970s Hawkwind records, to which Lemmy Kilmister lent his aggro bass playing; to Megadeth’s apocalyptic cheese; to the impossibly nutty thing that is Wormed. But SF and prog and heavy metal? Too often, the combination of those elements leads to stuff like Tool, or that Blood Incantation record a lot of people lost their minds over last year (which to this listener sounded like death metal made safe for “All Songs Considered” — and no thanks).