u/a_Bort_the_Artist

Let's go over some quick facts,

1:We only have one official statement from the band, this statement only acknowledges Pike is not currently involved but mentions absolutely nothing about bad blood.

2: Pike has been "out of the band" for quite a while now, did we all forget the touring juggernaut that HOF is?

3: Pike's EX-wife commented. They have been divorced for a good while, i would take her opinion with a grain of salt.

4: Pike has made zero comment so far good or bad, maybe we wait to see what he says?

5: Have we all forgotten that Sleep is kinda known for varying quality in their releases. It sounds like Sleep with classic Void guitar. Plus nobody can contest that Dale is a phenomenal drummer. Its good, and its a good addition to their discography. Just because the member you have the biggest parasocial relationship with isnt there doesnt mean it sucks.

So to recap. We know absolutely nothing about the situation. Only one source of merit has commented and thats the bands official statement. The sing is objectively good. Is it what you personally wante? No, and nobody in the world is obligated to give you that.

I wouldn't be shocked if it turns out Pike quit the band because of how shitty their fans can be.

The gym rarely leaves me feeling good in any way. I keep hearing about these so called endorphin rushes and how good it feels after a workout. People seem so engaged at the gym and focused on what they are doing. I honestly can not make myself care. Im not badly overweight, and I could always put more muscle on but I have zero ill will towards my own body and dont have any negative feelings when I look in the mirror. My fiancé's trainer keeps assuring me im making progress even if it doesnt feel like it. I just dont care that I am. I often leave just feeling tired and more depressed than when I went in.

I have never felt accomplishment pushing my boundaries or completing workout goals. I spend every moment in the gym just zoning out and doing whatever workout im on and getting through it. Then I go home and feels ambivalent. I dont regret going to the gym, but I certainly feel like its the mental and spiritual equivalent of staring at the wall. No passion, no desire to make myself better or worse, just cant make myself care about this whole gym nonsense one way or another. ​

Listen, been seeing a lot of posts about people new to being in a band worrying about one thing or another and generally all or most of these worries can be solved with healthy communication. But wait, I hear you say, communication is really hard! And granted, you are absolutely correct. Strangers online telling you to simply communicate solves the issue as much as telling a drowning man to breath solves his issues.

So what do we do about this? Worry no more, here are some in depth band communication tips that most comments wont bother getting in to but will indefinitely help the relationships within your band stay healthy.

1: Band life and kink life have a lot more in common than you think. Calm down, its not titties. You will always attract more gear nerds than groupies. No, im talking about setting clear goals and expectations. When you join a band everyone in that band should, out loud, state their musical intention with the project and what they expect to get out of it physically (like recording an album), mentally (the inter-band relationships and musical experience of creating), or spirituality (being on stage). Once goals and expectations are clear people can create and move forward with confidence and a clear goal.

2: Band Bar Therapy. Doesn't matter how you slice it a band is a real relationship. You will support, challenge, and fight among yourselves in real and authentic ways. Just like a romantic relationship if you ignore communication it will always fail. Even the biggest bands in the world drifted apart when they stopped hanging out. Now I know you dont need to go as far as to hire a therapist, but you need the band equivalent. On a regular basis meet at your favorite bar or restaurant. You arnt there to make music or talk about band stuff. You are there to be friends and talk about life. You need to nurture all aspects of the relationship to have good band communication.

3: After show-care. Again with the kink reference, aftercare is paramount. Don't just have a show and move on. The next day meet up or in the band chat talk about the show. What went well. What could have gone better. And a few memories you will always hold dear good or bad. A good performance comes from talking and analyzing your last one.

4: Make a scheduled goal line for everyone's goals and do your best to make everyone's goals happen. Its not hard to care about your bandmates and in the end this band is a communal memory. Don't fuck your bandmate's memory of this great moment in their life to make something else more convenient.

5: 5th and finally. Once a month or two the band needs to hold a Check In Meeting. A private conversation in the band practice space where everyone is sober. This is where you can openly express worries and frustrations. Remember no band repercussions can come from these conversations. If you expect your fellow musicians to respect your musical vulnerability you need to show that you respect their vulnerability as a human.

Remember my musical friends, at the end of the day we all chose to do this because we wanted to have fun being the Rockstar of our own design. If its not healthy its not worth it, but its worth it to make it healthy.

Been thinking about this lately. There are two bands from my home town that have really been putting in the effort and due diligence. This has rewarded both of them with pretty solid record deals for a few albums, amazing connections in their chosen scenes, and high praise from many respected artists and muisc reviewing sites.

I have seen these bands play live for years and in those years they both swapped out a good amount of members. Sometimes for bad behavior, other times because life or other music projects became more important. A common sentiment from the people leaving those bands was always "Im not too bummed, its just a local band."

Ever been part of a band that took off after you left? I mean I have had projects fall apart once members left but I have yet to experience what must be a challenging blow to ones ego and self image in some ways. Or did yall have the opposite feeling and always kinda had a feeling the band was destined for greatness with or without you?​

Im no stranger to tripping, spent a good decade enjoying acid, ​​DMT, and shrooms with my bandmates and skateboarding friends. Its fun, and for what its worth i wouldn't say I regretted taking anything or any experience i had.

Prior to taking any hallucinogenic material I had done a lot of personal study into lucid dreaming to the point I now have an established reality I "go to" every night when I sleep. I have friends, a job, and a whole life in that dream reality that I enjoy and experience on the same level as my "waking reality". Some people and friends are in both realities and some people and friends are unique to the realities they inhabit. My experiences in my dream reality are linear and I retain a full memory of not only short term but long term memories and recollections after I wake up into this reality space. I know the city, countryside, and state intimately in my dream world and can choose to go to specific places or do specific things. People often use the "red ball" technique to determine if they are lucid dreaming or not. I use my cellphone as my contacts in this reality are different than my dream reality.

ANYWAY lol, I stopped using hallucinogenic stuff because it was making my lucid dreaming harder to fully be immersed in. It took away my control and free will in my lucid dreams and forced me to be a slave to my dream subconscious again in a way. Once I got sober from hallucinogenic drugs the vibrancy and depth of my lucid dream world exploded into color again and I have never looked back.

Got no point beyond just thinking about it, silly to think i got sober on tripping so I could essentially trip better and more consciously in my sleep.

Been seeing lots of "low tier", "mid tier" and "high tier" discussions and I am feeling like my old school knowledge is falling short. I played and DM'd D&D mostly in late 90s and early 2000s. I have done a few campaigns post covid but in general i feel like im an old fish in a new pond. In my experience most campaigns that start at level 1 rarely make it past level 10+ and forget about players casually reaching beyond level 10 without a multi-year campaign. Yet I keep seeing posts like "just starting a new campaign, my players are gonna make several gold dragons their personal bitches and then they are gonna fuck a god in his ear hole." Meanwhile I still have an old campaign that makes saving a village from a pack of roaming Gnolls a real life issue.

In the modern day of playing whats considered "mid-tier" in terms of adventuring level and what levels are normal campaigns happening at these days?

This band is a fucking rabbit hole with no answers. Here is what I have figured out so far...

1: They used to make generally "good" stoner doom as a 3 piece.

2: They apperantly broke up and had a fight over who owned the masters.

3: There is a single remaining member who lost the rights to the masters, re-recorded old albums at a noticeably worse quality.

4: The remaining member now released "Doom-Bap" rap under the band's old streaming and bandcamp pages.

5: Apperantly they were always very rap based???

Am I missing something? Or is this the whole messy picture? This band is confusing in general.

Lots to praise and love about the game but a few things fell flat when they didnt really need to. I think the biggest thing for me was the Relic upgrades. Got really excited when Song first described how she uploaded some experimental combat programs that will give you an edge in all combat. Aside from the weakness targeting I almost 100% ignore upgrading the relic and dont bother looking for the relic points at all. Major let down in my opinion, especially with how much effort went into the rest of the upgrade system.

Id say beyond that it was a little bit of a bummer to never really climb the mercenary ladder and repair your reputation from the Konpeki Plaza disaster. The Afrerlife is filled with some of the coolest NPCs in the entire game and the little interactions you can overhear in various crews is always great. V just always feels like tainted goods in there, nobody really talks to you and V never really graduates from street level fixers to Afterlife level fixers again with the exception of Rouge who has no issue telling you how low of an opinion she has of you. In a world where mercs become legends it always felt like the Afterlife should have offered more. ​