DEATH // SENTENCE

We're joined by one-half of the excellent podcast Twelve Rules for What to talk about their jointly written book The Rise of Ecofascism. We have a wide-ranging conversation that takes in ecofascism's past, present and future and bond over a joint love of Elden Ring. Buy The Rise of Ecofascism from Polity Books: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-rise-of-ecofascism-climate-change-...

In an episode that's been a long time coming, Langdon and Eden tackle Vancian fantasy, the Dying Earth sub-genre, and how these might be subverted to tell both radical and conservative stories. Works covered (beyond the obvious Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance) include Adventure Time, D&D, Gor, The Dancers at the End of Time, Book of the New Sun, and more! Music played: Duel - Children of th...

The philosophy world has turned on poor, innocent Freidrich Nietzsche, calling him a 'reactionary' and 'proto-fascist' and 'incel' (probably), but YouTuber Jonas Ceika (aka CCK Philosophy)is here to bring him back, jamming his deeply anti-egalitarian thought into that of Karl Marx, who literally invented being nice. Can he make a convincing case that these two thinkers are compatible? Spoilers: ye...

This time around, Langdon and Eden dive face first into Samantha Hunt's heart-breaking, magical realist, water drenched "The Seas". They discuss topics like the impact of poverty on the psyche, climate change, the collective and individual trauma of the Iraq War (both of them), femininity, and unrequited love. Oh, but not before discussing yassified Melkor and Sauron fan art. You know, Death // Se...

We have the indomitable Gretchen Felker-Martin back on the show to talk about her major-publisher debut, the first ever mainstream horror novel by a trans author, Manhunt. We talk about horror, TERFs, the sublime nature of violence, community and Community (the show). Music by Black Dresses: https://blackdresses.bandcamp.com/album/forget-your-own-face and The Body: https://thebody.bandcamp.com/alb...

Railed a whack book Feel real bad about it Feel like it might 'say something' about 'late capitalism' Just wanted to create 'content' to 'go viral' Had Phoebe Roy-bae from 10,000 Posts and Masters of Our Domain pods on to talk about it. Still feelin' whack tho. Music by Sunrot and Mares of Thrace

Eden is back on the solo episode grind, this time covering the beautiful, wonderous, and deco-punk "Radiance" by Catherynne M. Valente. Phantasmagoria on the moon, magnificent space voyages, ruminations on the miracle that is bread, trans-dimensional whales and more! Featured music: Dunsmuir - What Manner of Bliss? https://dunsmuir.bandcamp.com/album/dunsmuir

The best ever death metal and/or literature podcast out of three different countries is talking about John Darnielle's book Devil House, which dissects true crime, storytelling and epistemology itself while still managing to make us cry. Music by Rolo Tomassi: https://rolotomassi.bandcamp.com/album/where-myth-becomes-memory And Celeste: https://celestes.bandcamp.com/ Listen to more of the Alpha Th...

A Marxist analytical conversation about the current state of music distribution. Langdon invited RSH, a pop music critic for Billboard as well as a writer at various other venues, to discuss the rift between Spotify and Neil Young. The focus of the conversation is less on the particulars of this specific incident and more on the historical and material conditions that led to the rise of Spotify ro...

This time around, Langdon and Eden dive deep into the early stages of human development, the Enlightenment and our political predicament with Wengrow and Graeber's "The Dawn of Everything"! But first, they take a trip to a more recent time, looking at the rise and fall (and rise) of "dark" progressive music through the lens of Pain of Salvation's current...situation. Then the conversation turns to...

Whoa! Death // Sentence is back, baybee! And so is Gareth! Langdon is also here but Eden is not. What mysteries are revealed with this conjunction, nay, this syzygy? Why, it's the secrets of Alison Rumfitt, author of gothic-horror book "Tell Me I'm Worthless". What if there was a book so good that not only did we end our hiatus prematurely, but the show's founder came out of retirement for one las...

Winged angels fight with cocky birds. Swordsmen plague the land, looking for a lark. A sailor returns, reincarnated as a soldier. Or does he? That's right, it's the fourth, and final, episode of Book of the New Sun! We did it! We actually did it. This episode wraps up what we both consider to be THE greatest series of science fiction books ever written. We'll ignore the fact that there's a fifth....

A wind blows through a cruel city. The mountains sing with rain. Ancient tyrants awaken in their holds and everywhere war and the rumors of war leap between the peaks. It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 3! It's Sword of the Lictor time baybee, as our very own multiple-Christ, the one and only (hah!) Severian comes closer and closer to more answers and, naturally, more questions. Double-headed tyra...

The past bubbles up from within forgotten caves. The light that once shined bright now falls and we feel our bodies give way to darkness. Who will save us from our decay? What beast now slouches towards the podcast to be born? It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 2! After taking a break to allow for Life™ (it, uh, finds a way), Langdon and Eden are back to take the Claw of the Conciliator, the secon...

The future continues to unfold. Swords continue to sing. Prophets continue to roam the land. The past continues to collapse. The present continues to be unintelligible. It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 1! This time around, Langdon and Eden tackle the first volume of Book of the New Sun - The Shadow of the Torturer. Miracles! Resurrections! How may resurrections? Who knows! At least several! Duel...

At last! The fated prophecy has been completed and the first episode of the Book of the New Sun arrives! Spaceships fly to the forested moon! Swords are wielded in the dark! Time bends like so many swallows in the last light of the day! Lots of confusing shit is soon to happen so Langdon and Eden do some setup for the next few episodes, diving into Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. FEATURED MU...

Smelling faintly of roses and holy words, Eden conjures forth this solo episode. He tackles one of the most beautiful, delicate, and magical books he's read in the last few years, Sofia Samatar's A Stranger in Olondria. FEATURED MUSIC: serpentwithfeet - Amir https://serpentwithfeet.bandcamp.com/album/deacon

On a blazing steed of heat and light, Death // Sentence arrives once again. This time around, Langdon and Eden navigate the post-modern labyrinth that is the Suez Canal stoppage, unravelling the blood-ritual at its core. Then, they discuss "Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space" by Keller Easterling, a mind-boggling, expansive analysis of how capital uses Free Trade Zones, mobile netw...

After recovering from falling out of two buildings consecutively, Langdon finally posts the newest episode. In it, Eden and Langdon tackle NFTs, the new psychopoison of the capitalist age, then tackle the psychedelic mindwarp SF/F novel LIGHT by M. John Harrison. FEATURED MUSIC: Steel Bearing Hand - "Command of the Infernal Exarch", Seputus - "The Learned Response" Steel Bearing Hand - SLAY IN HEL...

On this week's death sentence, Eden and Langdon tackle Suzette Elgin's ambitious linguistic-feminist science fiction novel/project NATIVE TONGUE. But first, they must conquer the United States Stock Market and defeat the evils of reactionary analysis at root within the Gamestop investing push. Eden is transformed into a psychocloud and Langdon contacts six of the seven buddhas. FEATURED MUSIC: Sto...

Langdon and Eden tackle The Vorrh trilogy by B. Catling, a wild lysergic absinthian literary feast combining shards of magical realism, avant-garde literature, ecstatic spiritualist poetry and prose, anti-colonialism, paganism, fantasy, horror and historical fiction into one spellbinding modern masterwork. But first they must discuss how utterly fucked that coup was, which sucked mondo ass. FEATUR...

On this new Death//Sentence Solo Series, Eden explores award-winning author Kij Johnson's AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF BEES, a collection of magical realist fantasy fiction. FEATURED MUSIC: Snooze - "Amicus Pawsterum"

On this episode, Langdon and Eden tackle the universe's most pressing issue: the nature of the Grinch, the contradictions of the Grinchgeist, and the spiritual warfare that fires his burning heart. Additionally, they cover P. Djeli Clark's novella RING SHOUT, Langdon's book of the year, which is a Lovecraftian counter-read interposing the KKK as servants of Lovecraftian darkness and hateful chaos....

Langdon and Eden do the long-threatened and discuss House of Leaves, both as a cultural object and as a novel, especially as it pertains to literalizing anxiety states. The novel carries both an overwhelming adoration a reciprocal stigma, both of which cloud its functions as an art object. We seek at least in part to dispel that. Discussion of the book starts at 46min. TW: descriptions of anxety a...

Recovered from Langdon being extremely bad at technology comes an episode long in the making. We actually started prep for this episode over a month ago but, between anxiety breakdowns and, tech issues. BUT: Now we cover the powerful novel THE ONLY GREAT HARMLESS THING by Brooke Bollander, a novel about humanity's history of atavistic self-harm and our abusive relationship with the biology of the...