/listening

Music plays a major role in my life — not only as a listener, but also as a creator. My taste lives somewhere between dark, atmospheric extremes and classic sonic precision.

But sometimes my musical taste is context dependent. For the gym I prefer the blunt brutality of Death Metal. For relaxation Synthwave offers a nice ambient. And for working in house and garden, my wife and I have a pretty obscure playlist, spanning from Alternative 80s, 90s Euro-Dance and Hip-Hop over Nu-Metal Classics to Speed Metal and Psychobilly. The Spotify algorithms hates us.

Current heavy Rotation

• Electric Callboy
• Blitzkid
• Calabrese
• Enforcer
• Owls Woods Graves
• Sonja
• Die Antwoord
• Spiritbox

Evergreens

• Ulcerate: “The Destroyers of All” / “Stare into Death and Be Still” - Supreme Post-Death Metal with intense atmosphere and haunting melodies.
• The Smiths: “Hatful of Hallow” - I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things. Served by the incredible John Peel.
• Planks - “The Darkest Of Grey” - Mastodon and Darkthrone play songs by The Cure.
• Gorerotted - “Only Tools and Corpses” - Oldschool Death-Grind with twisted humor and technical finesse.
• Jack Slater - “Blut/Macht/Frei” / “Extinction Aftermath” - The German Gorerotted and an underrated gem.
• Devourment - “Butcher The Weak” - Blunt, but perfect for the Gym.
• Necrophagist - “Epitaph” - A classic in exceptional technique and melodic songwriting
• Judas Priest - “Painkiller” - A heavy metal classic.
• Last Days Of Humanity - Album titles irrelevant. More kind of ambient than music, but somehow this calms me down.

Project Spotlight

Ius Talionis – Antagonist (2025)
Currently entering the final stages of post-production. Expect contemporary melodic black metal with layered guitars, ambient textures, and lyrical themes that explore the concept of the “Antagonist”.

Drums and Bass were recorded at Liquid Aether Audio. Guitars and Vocals were recorded independently. All mix/master done by Liquid Aether Audio.

Podcasts

• F.A.Z. Frühdenker: My morning briefing.
• Deutschland Funk Die Nachrichten: Regular check-in on current events.
• BBC Global News: Catching up with the news in the evening.
• Produktiv jetzt: Tips and tricks on productivity served as small snacks.

For updates on my creative work, see /now or my music-related project logs in /projects.