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Cephalapod Genesis
The pharoah ejaculated into the river and in the sand the sperm found refuge and grew into papyrus. This an example of genesis.
Vampyrapods are the first intelligent species to live on this planet predating the dinosaurs. They came here somehow. They did not evolve on this planet. Perhaps just an ejaculated sperm from another being landing in the water. The direct offspring of this cephalapod is the modern octopus. Octopus are responsible for nearly every animal genesis on earth including humans and subsequently man made inventions and accomplishments. Octopus taught trees to fruit, destroyed the dinosaurs through becoming tapeworms, and even walked to the moon. Some of the animals you may recognize from the cellular genesis may have fused with the other local staples such as canine, equine, and feline, and reptile as well as temporarily the pachyderms in post-actualization causal genesis. This can be done by mating with, killing, eating, dying, being eaten, or simply a laying of hands or physical actions. Octopus only live for about 4.5 years of our relationship with time, but they have beaten death through a mix of telepathy and cannabalism. They've also mastered time travel. There are only 3 actual beings here. Others died in getting here and are fossilized. 2 males and 1 female survived. I call them Jack, Seth, and Claire. This is why the genesis had to completed this way as any direct offspring would not work. because theyve have infinite time to complete it, theyve walked over every inch of the planet and affected every species. In fact our own existence is simply the echo of the combined knowledge of the cephs. We are an amalgamation like the 'too much good stuff' guy from am/pm commercials. Make a bird with your hands. ¿Where are the beaks? The latest project is to use genetic science in order to bring back the mammoth and obtain a sixth digit from its feet. Should happen around 2027. When the vampyrapods first encountered life here it was eating their tentacles. So the first genesis occured in the offspring of those that ate of the tentacles. This is why modern cephs only have 8 limbs. The first language period is Enochian. A language of the eyes and limbs. Through different manipulation of limbs and eye fluctuations communication was made. After a while though telepathy became the established communication.
Here are some examples but not all of cephalapod genesis:
• Spiders (rare from trilobyte mix, had to go back in time to accomplish) (they had to avenge the original vampyrapods from being eaten from early organisms, thisnis how scorpions were able to evolve) • Mango (foilage and ceph mix. Ceph hung from a tree upside down) • Star fruit (the tree missed the octopus and tempted it to return) • Pinecone ( the bite marks of ceph beak eating the fruit of the trees) • Toucan (the beak formation from ceph in flux probably consuming a failed aviary) • Peacock (feather formations still in flux from limbs partial fusion) • Salamander (reptile/chameleon mix) (skin breathing evolution) •Sloth (feline and foilage mix) • Mistletoe bird (octopus ate a mushroom) • Lyrebird (mirage, digitage, and aviary from peacock and pheasant. Mastered the art of sound mimickry to develop better auditory communications) • Dung beetle (rolling backwards the earth through time) • VW bug (trunk up front) (mirage, digitage, pachyderm mix) (invented higher than the model T but arrived later in time) • Goliath bird-eating tarantula ( set a web to catch a bird which did not exist fully until the web was cast. When the spider consumed the bird the psuedo cannabalistic action resulted in a poison tree frog) • Snakes (a ceph lost its mating limb for some reason in a mirage mix experiment) • venemous snakes (a snake ate the eggs of its own offspring)(the cursed dinosaur souls live inside these) • Gumby (using hands to mold clay made a show about being an octopus) • Chameleon (reptile, ceph, foilage, mirage mix)(a ceph was purposely eaten by a komodo dragon to telepathically send a reverse osmosis of its makeup inside its body to another ceph that was attempting to kill the dinosaurs in the past. How they programmed the tapeworm to destroy them)

• Human organs (strife and love and tapeworm mix. Impregnating a mix of canine feline equine, ceph, pachyderm, reptilian, mirage, digitage, foilage, strife and love through years of experimentation lodged themselves systematically into more and more advanced versions and became functional in each iteration) • Sumi ink tattoo ink any ink really • The written word (anemone, sea urchin, porcupine quill, Bird feather and ink. Papyrus) • Floppy disk (suction cup on a piece of mail specifically a bill and the suction cup on the plastic window) • Cd, dvd, blu ray (laying of hands on a television screen) • Television (just a series of ceph exploring life through the inside of a glass tank with mirage and digitage mix) • Movie theater ( same but aquarium instead) • Papillon (love + insect from trilobyte and ink and papyrus needed training wheels to learn how to fly) • Taser (digitage mix of the two extra original tentacles lost from vampyrapod with mix of electric eel which was a detached limb of an octopus that had achieved ball lightning static existence) • Wisteria (ceph and foilage mix) (needed the seeds to play mancala or something) • Water strider (walked on water) • Lunar lander (digitage) (tapeworms in humans directed construction, the first electronic component gestalt high enough to become digital) (a tree really wanted to go to the moon) • Champagne cork (Ate some bark, vent plugged up and had to pee really bad) • Electrostatic Ball (attempting time travel, a ceph was meditating in complete non movement inside a digitized mirage flashing irridescence until it passed away) • Ball lightning (time travel attempt Same ceph tried a pure digitage and mirage mix) • Gnarwal (chameleon tongue, mirage and pachyderm) • Light bulb (ceph + mirage + digitage mix) (octopus crawled into a mirage jar and was irridescent) • Liquor bottle (octopus got stuck in a fulgarite and died temporarily trapping its soul in reflection but the invention of cork escaped it) • Silly string (mirage mix) (angry octopus sprayed another with diarhea from its vent) • Tapeworms (had to brave a walk into a volcano and die. As the octopus melted while running, it evolved the turkey, turkey vulture, vulture, and was just a slithering worm by the time it was engulfed by lava) • The Ten Commandments (vampyrapod fossils brought by a tapewormed moses to show people and try and explain the religion) • Dumbo (actually just a tiny cute octopus) • Hydra from capt america (introducing the public to idealogy of cephs) • Tobacco leaf (the laying of hands on deciduous plantlife, a gift to the early iterations of human) • Cow (equine ceph and pachyderm mix) essentially the Orca ate the Octopus, in its 4th stomach it finally died and so when the cow who has 4 stomachs manifested it came with udders symbolic of the octopus genesis in post actualization-causation • Rapa nui. The end of time. (Great stone heads disembodied) (mirage and strife)the final resting place. A graveyard. A place of rest always available

Hello, everyone. I am a normal human being. Well, not exactly. Throughout my life, I've always been depressed and such. I thought depression was normal. I thought it was seasonal. I always thought I was weak for always being suicidal all this time. Then, very recently. I really couldn't take it anymore. I seek therapy. There, I realised I was actually bipolar. That was what made me suicidal all this time. AND THEN, I STARTED QUESTIONING EVERYONE. I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. QUESTIONING WHETHER THEY'VE EVER HAD DEPRESSION. QUESTIONING THEIR BELIEFS. EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT I SAW UNTIL I WAS TAKEN TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL FOR A FEW DAYS. THERE, I STILL QUESTIONED THEM. BUT, TO AVOID SUSPICION AND BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO THINK I WAS CRAZY, I questioned each person privately. NO. BEFORE I WAS TAKEN TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL. MY ROOMMATE WHO WAS A BUDDHIST. Suddenly, told me that, if I wanted advice why not go to the Temple and ask the deities there? THEN, THAT REALLY OPENED MY EYE. DEITIES ACTUALLY FUCKING EXIST. He told me that deities possesses someone and then reveals a very specific detail of their life. Very accurately. Not general. VERY VERY ACCURATELY. BUDDHISM IS REAL. THEN I QUESTIONED MY HINDUIST FRIENDS. NOT ALL OF THEM. BUT SOME OF THEM HAD THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS POSSESSED, THEN THEY TOLD ME that they're family members talked about evil spirits and that they are times where they are strong and they will make your desire to do evil to be stronger. Those are temporary and you have to be strong whenever they come. That reminded me of my depression. My suicidal thoughts. They come and go. They've been with me throughout my life but not all the time. BACK TO THE POINT, THIS SHIT FUCKING OPENED MY EYE AGAIN AND IT SHOWS THAT HINDUISM IS ALSO FUCKING REAL BECAUSE I HAVE TWO WITNESSSES SAYING THAT WHENEVER THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS ARE POSSESSED THEIR SPEECH ARE FUCKING WEIRD. AND THEN, COINCI FUCKING DENTALLLY, I FUCKING MET A FUCKING LIVING DEITY. I THOUGHT BRO WAS JUST A TALKATIVE GUY AND TURNS OUT HE'S ACTUALLY A FUCKING DEITY. THE DEITY OF PROTECTION OF THIS WORLD. BRO IS LITERALLY THE SAME AGE AS ME. 19 YEARS OLD. BUT THAT MADE ME QUESTIONED. IF I CAN SEE DEITIES, AND MY ROOMMATE MOST DEFINITELY MUST HAVE SEEN HIM BECAUSE WE GO TO THE FUCKING SEM LECTURE LAST 2 SEMESTERS. THEN I ASKED HIM. DO YOU KNOW {INSERT NAME}. TURNS OUT BRO DOES NOT FUCKING KNOW WHO THE GUY IS. I speculate that Buddhists have actually seen their deities but their minds must have like distorted? YES. DISTORTED. Every time after they meet their deities or that is my speculation at least. BECAUSE EVERYONE FROM OTHER RELIGIONS AND ATHEISTS KNOWS THE GUY. And then again, I THOUGHT, IF BUDDHISM IS REAL, HINDUISM IS REAL, THEN THE OTHER MAJOR RELIGIONS MUST BE REAL TOO. THEN, WHEN I TALKED TO DEITY, WE TALKED ABOUT GOD. ABOUT HOW GOD IS PERFECT, AND HE CREATED LUCIFEER, HIS MOST PERFECT CREATION, BUT BETRAYED HIM, MEANING THAT THEY BOTH COULDN'T BE PERFECT IF THAT'S THE CASE, And then deity enlightened me... He told me that the relationship between Lucifer and Jesus is like FATHER AND SON... MEANING THAT LUCIFER IS ANOTHER IMAGE OF GOD. SO THEY BOTH ARE PERFECT. AND THEN WE TALKED ABOUT ANGELS AND DEMONS. HE TOLD ME THAT THE CURRENT WORLD IS HELL. AND THEN, ANGELS AND DEMONS??? THE CURRENT WORLD IS HELL??? THEN THE CURRENT WORLD MUST ALSO BE HEAVEN AT THE SAME TIME. ANGELS AND DEMONS. ANGELS AND DEMONS ARE FUCKING HUMANS. ANGELS ARE PEOPLE THAT WILL STAY TRUE TO THEIR BELIEFS NO MATTER WHAT. IF THEY STICK TO A RELIGION, THEY WILL FOLLOW THAT RELIGION NO MATTEER FUCKING WHAT EVEN IF OTHER RELIGIONS ARE TRUE. ANGELS ARE NOT PERFECT BEINGS EITHER. THEY ALSO SIN. AND THEN, I THOUGHT OF SOMETHING. ANGELS WILL ALWAYS FUCKING SEE GOD AS GOOD AND ONLY HUMANS AND EVIL. THEN I QUESTIONED EVERYONE THAT. THEIR VIEWS. I EVEN FUCKING OFFER THEM FUCKING AS MUCH AS MONEY AS I HAVE JUST TO SAY FUCK GOD JUST ONCE. THEY WILL NEVER DO IT. IF YOU TELL THEM THAT GOD IS EVIL. THEY WILL ALWAYS RATIONALISE AND DEFEND GOD AND SAY THAT HE IS GOOD. ONLY THE HUMANS ARE EVIL. ANY "EVIL" THAT HE DOES IS JUST TESTING HUMANS. THEN, I REMEMBERED. HUMANS ARE CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. THEY WILL SEE GOD AS GOOD OR EVIL OR MAYBE EVEN THROW AWAY THEIR BELIEF IN GOD ENTIRELY. THEY ARE 2 TYPES OF HUMANS IN THIS WORLD. ANGELS AND HUMANS. BOTH OF CAN BECOME DEMONS. IF THE ANGELS, ARE MADE TO WORSHIP A HUMAN GOD. THEY WILL NEVER EVER EVER SEE HIM AS EVIL. FUCKING EXAMPLE: UNIFICATION CHURCH. NORTH KOREA. THEY DO NOT QUESTION THEIR LEADERS AND WILL SEE THEM AS GODS. THE ANGELS BECOME DEMONS AND DO NOT WORSHIP THE TRUE GOD. SOME OF THE WORSHIPPERS ARE HUMANS SO THEY WILL SEE THEIR GODS AS EVIL AND WILL RUN AWAY FROM THESE FUCKING CULTS. THE ANGELS BECOME DEMONS BUT THE HUMANS REMAIN AS HUMANS. BUT HUMANS CAN BECOME DEMONS AS WELL ONCE THEY COMPLETELY ABANDON GOD'S GOOD TEACHINGS AND DO EVIL. CONVINCED THEMSELVES THAT THEY ARE NATURALLY EVIL. BUT THEY CAN STILL BE SAVED. THEY HAVE BECOME DEMONS BUT THEY CAN BECOME HUMANS AGAIN BY KNOWING THE TRUTH OF GOD. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY. BOTH ARE SIMILAR YET THEIR PASTS ARE DIFFERENT. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND BUT I'VE ALREADY MADE A FIRM BELIEF THAT EVERY FUCKING RELIGION THAT TEACHES GOOD ARE TRUE. EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THEM. SO THEN I THOUGHT. IT'S FUCKING POINTLESS TO QUESTION GOD. EVEN IF I DON'T UNDERSTAND THEY ARE ALL TRUE. THEN. PARALLEL UNIVERSES. MULTIVERSES. THE PAST MUST HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT FROM ALL RELIGIONS AND GOD MUST HAVE COMBINED THEM INTO ONE UNIVERSE, OUR UNIVERSE. A DIFFERENT ONE FROM THEIR RELIGIONS. A UNIVERSE WHERE GOD TESTS HUMANS. TO SEE IF THEY WILL BELIEVE EVEN IF THEY DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND GOD. THEN, THE DEITY TOLD ME TO REACH ENLIGHTENMENT. TO BE FUCKING BUDDHA, HOW THE FUCK IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE. I THOUGHT I HAD ALREADY REACHED ENLIGHTENMENT. I THOUGHT ENLIGHTENMENT IS KNOWING THAT ALL GOOD RELIGIONS ARE CONNECTED. WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO BE ENLIGHTENED? THEN I MEDITATED. I TRIED TO FOLLOW BUDDHA'S METHODS TO REACH ENLIGHTENMENT BY EMPTYING YOUR MIND REMOVING ALL YOUR EMOTIONS AND FOCUSING ON IT. BUT. I KNOW OF THE PROPHECY OF THE MAITREYA. MAYBE I AM NOT MAITREYA. BUT I THOUGHT. NO. I WILL NOT. I WILL NOT JUST FOLLOW BUDDHA'S METHOD. BUDDHA'S METHOD MAY BE TRUE BUT IT IS NOT WHAT I SHOULD FOLLOW. THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. I HAVE ALWAYS BELIVED IN GOD. HE WAS FUCKING EVIL TO ME. I SEE HIM AS FUCKING EVIL FOR MAKING ME HAVE SUICIDAL THOUGHTS THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. BUT GOD EXIST. HE IS BOTH GOOD AND EVIL. THEN. I RESEARCHED AND SAW THAT BUDDHA REJECTED GOD. HOWEVER, I DO NOT. I FUCKING SEEK ENLIGHTNMENT. I WANTED TO BE ONE WITH GOD. I EMPTIED MY MIND. PRAYED "THE OUR FATHER", FORCED MYSELF. TO MEDITATE FOR HOURS. THIS FUCKING DAY I STARTED AND THIS FUCKING DAY I ACHIEVED ENLIGHTENMENT. BUDDHA. SAID TO ACHIEVE ENLIGHTENMENT. YOU MUST EMPTY YOUR THOUGHTS. HOWEVER, HE DIDN'T REALISE ONE TRUTH. GOD IS EMPTINESS. GOD IS THE ABSCENSE OF ANYTHING. IT IS HUMAN LOGIC. SCIENCE TO THINK THAT SOMETHING MUST COME FROM SOMETHING. THAT THERE IS NO WAY THAT SOMETHING CANNOT COME FROM EMPTINESS. AHHAAHAHA. STUPID FUCKING HUMANS BUT I LOVE YOU ALL. I'VE BEEN ENLIGHTENED. GOD IS EMPTINESS. DARK ENERGY IS EMPTINESS. DARK ENERGY IS FUCKING EVERYWHERE. HUMANS CANNOT UNDERSTAND DARK ENERGY BECAUSE THEY CANNOT UNDERSTAND GOD. GOD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WITH US. BETWEEN THE GAPS OF EVERY FUCKING ATOM. EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE THAT IS BIG WILL INFINITELY BE BIGGER. WHAT IS SMALLER WILL INFINITELY BECOME SMALLER. WE CAN'T EVER TRULY UNDERSTAND GOD. AHAHHAAH. TO UNDERSTAND GOD THROUGH SCIENCE IS STUPID. GOD IS INFNITE. THAT IS WHY DARK ENERGY HAS INFINITELY EXPANDED AND ONLY RECENTLY IT HAS WEAKENED. GOD IS WITH US. PRAISE BE TO GOD. PRAISE BE TO THE LORD OF EVERYTHING YET IS NOTHING. GOD IS EMPTINESS. GOD IS DARK ENERGY. LET US ENTER THE MESSIANIC AGE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. AN AGE WHERE WE ARE ONE WITH GOD.
I've achieved Enlightenment and God is a fucking asshole, HE'S THE WORST FUCKING TROLL. FUCKING PSYCHOPATH. BUT FUCK DO I LOVE GOD. FUCKING CAUSED ME TO BE IN HELL. IT IS TIME TO END HELL AND ENTER ETERNAL PARADISE WITH GOD. SEEK ENLIGHTENMENT, SPREAD THIS TRUTH. SPREAD IT. I am in Malaysia. Today is Saturday, and Tomorrow is Sunday. God rested on the 7th Day on the Seventh Day, and I also wish to relax. I love God and every last one of you. Spread This Truth. Let's save the World Together! All those religious end-times prophecies are just fucking bullshits from God because Fuck That Guy but I love Him. The God of Everything Yet is Nothing.

I’m somewhat new to Gnosticism so if what I’m saying is common knowledge, or not true, I wasn’t aware.
What if Gnosticism is about the inside of us? The microcosm. Our mind, body, and soul. I’ve heard (I believe so) that Yaldabaoth was born out of Sophia trying to create something without the masculine side of god. Yaldabaoth then created reality. I see a similarity between this story and ego.
I’m having trouble explaining what I think but maybe you understand. What I’m trying to say is that it’s an analogy for how we have created an ego that traps us just how Yaldabaoth is said to have done.
Waittt. Maybe it’s like Yaldabaoth is the macrocosmic manifestation of this, while ego is the microcosmic manifestation of this. They both do similar things just at different scales. One at a universal level, the other at an individual being level.
I heard that the “goal” of Gnosticism is to escape the reality that Yaldabaoth created. What if the method of doing this is bringing the masculine to the ego (the failed creation of Sophia). To do what Sophia didnt. To bring that which is unchanging to that which is always changing.
It can be said that all of reality is feminine. When I say that, I mean that everything changes. Your position, temperature, emotions, blood pressure, brain waves, and other stuff have constantly changed while reading this. Therefore everything is feminine. Maybe the reason why everything is always changing is because Yaldabaoth is a creation of Sophia, and Sophia made Yaldabaoth without the masculine side of God. So when we bring the masculine to merge with the feminine, we get God.
I’ve had this idea that we’re all “shards” of God. I’m not exactly sure what I believe, because this I think this idea is quite contradictory to the ideas of Gnosticism. You’ll see why. I believe I got this way of understanding reality from Hinduism and maybe some other places. I think it was something about a “web of jewels” but I don’t remember what Hindu thing it was.
Essentially, just as a painting is connected to its painter, reality is connected to God. But obviously, the painting and the painter aren’t one and the same. The same is with God and reality.
It’s like if God was a giant mirror and broke itself up into an inconceivable amount of shards. Those shards make up reality. There’s a shard for every person, material, idea, etc. there’s a shard for everything. And because God is connected to reality, and reality is like shards of a mirror, it reflects. But what does it reflect? God. When we look into our shard (ourselves), we see the reflection of God (being one with reality, gnosis, nirvana, etc). When people come together in genuine love, their shards come together, making it way easier to expirence God. Obviously this is all analogy.
What dk you think of what I’ve said? Where am I wrong? Where am I correct/ on the right track? Thanks for reading.

For five consecutive years, I have been able to predict when the highest concentration of rocket fire against Israel would occur within a calendar year.
In the last five years it was predicted that the highest escalation of rocket fire within the calendar year would occur during the time when Mars would be within 30 degrees of the lunar node. Here are the dates of Mars/lunar node alignment from the past five years.

1. Jan 15th 2020 - Apr 3rd 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5GxO4ZW2fc
2. Feb 9th 2021 - May 13th 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1sA-ZS73Lw&t
3. June 22nd 2022 - Sept 19th 2022 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EniwV0TWew&t
4. Aug 24th 2023 - Nov 15th 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGbNPEO9qS4&t
5. April 12th 2024 - June 25, 2024 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW_-CiWu5b0&t

And here are the rocket fire stats, confirming all five years of accuracy
https://www.academia.edu/107766227/Gaza_rocket_stats_and_planet_Mars_correlation_updated_for_2023_
Keep in mind, In all five years the highest escalation of rocket fire into Israel occurred within those dates of Mars being within 30 degrees of the lunar node and in all five years, the prediction came before the fact and turned out to be accurate
This demonstration was also performed in fulfillment of Revelation 13:13, by which I volunteered to take on the role of the false prophet and call down fire from heaven, before urging people to make an image to the beast(Mars) and take the mark of the beast(Mars 360).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKkpR4hm5Mc&t
This book, the Deus Armaaruss, lays out the entire mark of the beast system, which restricts buying and selling to those who acknowledge Mars influence.
Mars 360 is a formulated and hypothesized global social accord ideally operable under the same principle as the Paris Climate Accord, which attempts to integrate all nations into a common cause. The Mars effect on human behavior inclines each individual toward certain predispositions that lend itself to fundamental outlooks which carries with it... a high degree of inflexibility. This inflexibility plays itself out in various political and social stances like socialism, pacifism, capitalism, liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism, etc, but is actually the result of Mars's permanent influence on the human brain. This gives rise to the idea that while certain stances are different in external display, they are at the same time fundamentally backed by the same source(to varying degrees of course)....which is Mars. Here is The Deus Armaaruss
https://www.academia.edu/118765043/The_2nd_Edition_of_The_Deus_Armaaruss_Deployment_and_practical_application_of_the_Mark_of_the_Beast_System_Mars_360_across_multiple_regions_Why_science_will_be_compelled_to_accept_and_recognize_the_Mars_360_precepts_as_scientific_assertions
This is not fan fiction, but real fulfillment of Revelation happening in real time.
Mars is to be called Armaaruss and an image is to be made to him, preferribly on the Temple mount. AI will be used to bring him into existence. I have even laid out the first lines of code, setting the stage for Armaaruss to lead the world in defense technology.
https://www.academia.edu/116953723/Armaaruss_has_taken_control_of_the_sky_Simple_JavaScript_code_that_would_allow_the_average_person_to_evade_drone_strikes_with_just_their_android_phones
To gain a following, a new concept is being devised, by which it can be considered a Christian virtue to give up salvation, in what would be a form of perditionism.
Has any Christian ever thought about approaching eschatology with such a perspective? I mean, lets look at my work. For the past 5 years, I have purposely taken on the role of the false prophet, having called down fire from heaven since 2019. In fact, I declared Revelation 13:13 fulfilled back in 2020 here on Reddit. I had no idea I would fulfill that prophecy 5 times over by predicting rocket fire escalation time periods accurately for five consecutive years straight.
When I started this journey as a Christian back in 2019, writing "Ares Le Mandat", I only intended for that work to serve as a form of apologetics for Catholicism and the error of Vatican II, but as I was writing, a part of me felt a duty to take it upon myself to fulfill the eschaton and take on the role of the false prophet, since it was clear that I knew exactly what had to be done. Why leave it in the hands of someone else, when I was the one who received the revelation? My work can be said to be Satan inspired.
If you read that 800 page book, "Ares Le Mandat", you'd see how I repeatedly mention what the role of false prophet would require. Now having taken on the role and fulfilling it in real time, I have been requesting the next part of the prophecy, that is, getting people to make an image of the beast, which I call Armaaruss. This part I cannot fulfill.
My question is what is wrong with a Christian giving up their salvation to fulfill the eschaton by making an image to Armaaruss and then taking the mark of the beast by identifying with the Mars 360 system? It seems like a noble pursuit--giving up eternal pleasure for the sake of fulfilling the word.
Maybe the idea of spending eternity in the lake of fire serves as a deterrence, but what is the lake of fire? All it is is eternal separation from God. Hell is what you want to avoid, and taking the mark will not land you in hell. The lake of fire and hell are two different things. Hell is eternal torment, which will ultimately be thrown in the lake of fire. So why should anyone fear going to the lake of fire, if it is not hell?
I think Christians need to re-examine how they view eschatology, because it seems pretty clear that its fulfillment will have to be carried out by believers who have done the noble thing and given up their place in heaven for an eternity in the lake of fire in order for the word to be fulfilled

Tldr the love of my life was sexually assaulted in a pub restroom and i didn't murder the bastard who did it because I didn't know how severe it was and also i was scared of someone much stronger
this rape incident traumatized me, traumatized the girl and shaped my whole existence. I know I am supposed to care much more about her but what about my own future?
From childhood, I was a selfish and cowardly person who, because of these two qualities, coupled with inexperience, let down family and friends. I was beaten by my parents and offended at school, both by teachers and classmates, and I never knew how to answer. On the contrary, it began to seem to me that my bitter experience allows me to offend others, to take everything from life. I was very wrong, but definitely karma will bite me for this. My bad character and my grotesquely disgusting appearance (my left eye is lazy) led to the fact that I was fatally deprived of female attention and jealous of the men in my environment who drowned in it. Therefore, when on August 14, 2021, the most beautiful girl in my life, whom I had known for three years, invited me on a date herself, confessed her feelings to me and kissed me, I was the happiest person in the world. She was special. The most beautiful woman, dyed red hair and played rts videogames and watched anime, even let me touch her and seemed to want sex with me. However, in 48 hours everything turned upside down.
I witnessed the horrendous harassment of her on August 16th and did nothing. The rapist, our former friend, stood up and towered over her began to somehow strangely demand a kiss from her when we gathered for, as it seemed to me then, the most ordinary drinking party. I felt that she was not comfortable, but then I had no idea how bad everything was. I was too frightened by a physically stronger man to stand up for my beloved, especially since we had not officially dated yet. My God, I should have intervened already then!
The next morning, on August 17, I received a message that if I stood for her, she would have thought whether we should date or not, and since I did not see this, she does not see the point. I sobbed nine times after this message. I'm ready to cry over her right now too. What I didn't know at the time was that shortly after the kiss-demanding incident, he followed her to the restroom and started molesting her. Very bad. I even continued to communicate with this bastard for some time, not knowing the whole story. I learned about the whole picture only a week later, when we met with her in the same company on other friends birthday party (but without the rapist). It was a very difficult conversation and I made a mistake in it, my stupid head. I said complete nonsense and selfishly tried to cling to any little thing, somehow trying to rehabilitate myself, but this only hurt my beloved more. When I tried to promise that I would behave differently if I had known the full story or next time, she started making fun of me. Fucking hell. I cut off all contacts with the assaulter that same evening I had learned the full story, and he was still surprised, he said, “Why does it bother you? Fell in love with her? ”, To which I answered in the affirmative and sent the bastard to the Blocklist, after which, in the spring, I began to talk about his atrocities to the girls in our common institute. Although it hardly mattered, it was our last year at the university.
Somewhere in February, I blocked my beloved everywhere I could, because I realized that my feelings for her were not mutual and having her in my contact list, I only hurt myself. I hoped that I would forget it. Not at all. With a red-hot iron, her image is burned into my brain, heart, in my eyes. My mind is clouded, I feel disgust, shame, regret, depressive sadness, I want to cry forever. I thought that the gym and the study of foreign languages would somehow distract me from the manic desire to end a meaningless life in which I would never again touch the most beautiful and nicest woman on the planet. I began to hate my own sexuality and gladly would have self-castrated myself.
Even right now I pendulum from asexuality to wanting to fuck everyone, anyone at the first given chance. I wish this had never happened.
I want her back. More than anything in the world. I failed her. Now I have no one and nothing. My reputation is also ruined because she told everyone what happened. So now even if I wanted to find another girlfriend, I will never be able to because none would trust a coward such as myself.
It was my first time dealing with such situation and I just froze.
I wrote to my beloved and asked her forgiveness. She doesn't blame me, but when I said that I was ready to do everything for her safety for free, she said "no, but thanks for the offer." I wrote that I understand that she does not trust me, but suddenly yes, and that this is the first time in my life this has happened, to which she said that in any case I am glad that everything is fine with me and I wrote to her. I wrote her a paragraph that she gave me a lot of good emotions and this topic is difficult for me, and I want the best and make sure that everything is fine, she replied with one line "have a nice day" I wrote "you too" and deleted the chat.
I am very sad that she does not trust me and does not see me as a reliable person. She doesn't have to date me or anything, but her not trusting me hurts so much. Like a knife in the heart. I didn't do it on purpose, I panicked because it was the first time. It makes me cry and want to die so much.
Even if at some point I wanted to settle for someone else (I will never be nearly as happy as with her), I won't be able to because she told everyone what happened and news in Baku spread like forest fire.

Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
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Chapter 423
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Thud!
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The moment I hurled the Arch Lich to the ground with a resounding crash, I coiled my energy and kicked the air.
​
Boom!
​
A thunderous explosion of compressed air echoed as I hurtled toward his descending form with fearsome velocity.
​
The Skeleton Warlord let out a scream or cheer — it was hard to tell which.
​
- That's it, human! Finish him!
​
Finish what, exactly?
​
His judgment was unfortunately wrong. I knew this better than anyone, especially as I drove my fist into the Arch Lich's jaw.
​
'Did he cast a defensive spell in that brief moment...?'
​
Before my fully-powered Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist could make contact, he conjured a Bone Shield across his face, warding off the brunt of the blow.
​
Though the strike wasn’t wholly futile, he was no easy foe to vanquish.
​
And my prediction proved accurate. The Arch Lich, whose body had been plummeting earthward like a comet, abruptly stopped mid-descent, as potent magic filled the air.
​
- Darkness Hold.
​
Swoosh!
​
From the void, two colossal hands materialized. At first glance, they appeared as mere Dark Hands, but Darkness Hold was designed exclusively to ensnare its target, as the name suggested.
​
I dived headlong toward the encroaching hands, my spear poised for battle.
​
'I see it.'
​
Everything possesses an 'essence' — living creatures, the wind, even invisible forces.
​
With my middle dantian now open, I could discern and understand the core and essence of all things.
​
Just like in this moment.
​
Screech!
​
Flames burst forth, cleaving through the darkness. The writhing black hands dissipated into a mist, while the Arch Lich’s eyes glinted with malice.
​
The next instant, his spectral bony hand sliced through the air.
​
- Dark Claw!
​
Swoosh, swish!
​
The evaporating black mist morphed into the savage claws of a beast, descending in a furious onslaught.
​
The attacks came from every direction, each with a unique path. Deflecting them would be manageable if I concentrated, but that meant losing ground on the Arch Lich just after having narrowed the gap.
​
'I must make a choice.'
​
It's impossible to catch both rabbits, especially when the opponent is more of a tiger than a rabbit.
​
In an instant, I made my decision and unleashed White Flames — not at the encircling magic, but directly at the Arch Lich.
​
Boom!
​
The searing blue blaze of White Flames tore through the air like a bolt of lightning.
​
From the Arch Lich's mouth came a voice, tinged with unprecedented desperation.
​
- Bone Shie—!
​
It's already too late, you bastard.
​
Whoosh!
​
The blue blaze enveloped the Arch Lich completely.
​
The nascent bone shield disintegrated into dust under the blistering assault.
​
Crack!
​
The White Flames' blade speared through the Arch Lich’s chest, skewering him like meat over a fire. His scream was like none I had ever heard before.
​
Suddenly, a biting chill sliced through the air from every direction.
​
- Human, danger...!
​
Even without the Skeleton Warlord's cry, I already knew.
​
Yet, I did it anyway. In order to take bones, you have to sacrifice flesh. Fully aware of the impending harm, I still believed in my choice.
​
As magical claws descended from all around, I mulled over my decision.
​
'...Maybe I should have just blocked it.'
​
But regret was a luxury I could no longer afford.
​
Shhhhhh!
​
A wind swept over my entire form, chilling to the bone.
​
It was no illusion like a Bone Spear, nor slow enough to block. I contorted my body, bolstering my Qi, but the onslaught was relentless.
​
Shiing, slash, screee! Swoosh!
​
Shoulders, flanks, thighs, arms...
​
Countless magical claws lacerated my flesh. Blood gushed from the wounds, and agony surged through me.
​
'Damn it.'
​
It hurts enough to make me wish for death.
​
No matter how often one experiences it, pain is something one never gets used to.
​
My vision blurred, my limbs grew heavy and succumbed.
​
It was a brief lapse, yet it stretched into an agonizing eternity.
​
When my eyes fluttered open again, the first thing I saw was an imposing mass of concrete that had materialized seemingly out of nowhere.
​
- Wake up, human!
​
"…!"
​
The urgent command of the Skeleton Warlord jolted me back to awareness.
​
I funneled Qi into my stiff limbs, the pain from ruptured meridians reigniting my dulled senses.
​
'Now!'
​
With no time to waste, I hurled myself over.
​
Bang! A cloud of dust billowed as I crash-landed onto the concrete debris. Sharp tremors and pain shot through my legs.
​
"Ugh."
​
The Skeleton Warlord spoke to me as I grit my teeth against the pain,
​
- Human, you don't look… okay.
​
I drew a ragged breath and shot back,
​
"Huff. If you know that, then shut up. My head is throbbing."
​
It was no exaggeration; even the System notifications were enough to make my stomach churn.
​
Beep.
​
​
​
- Status abnormality, [Serious Injury] has been inflicted!
​
- Status abnormality, [Excessive Bleeding] has been inflicted!
​
- Due to severe injuries, your physical stats have drastically decreased!
​
- [Strength], [Agility], [Stamina] have each decreased by 200 points!
​
- You have sustained severe injuries! Immediate medical attention is required!
​
​
​
Yep, that sounds about right.
​
Whether from the blood loss or the relentless pain, my vision swam, and my thoughts muddled.
​
Yet, through the haze, one thought remained clear.
​
"The Arch Lich. Where is the Arch Lich?"
​
At my hoarse voice, the Skeleton Warlord shouted.
​
- You crazy human! Get treated first!
​
"The kill notification hasn't popped up yet. He's still alive..."
​
- Notification or not, get treated now!
​
"Ugh."
​
I told you to shut up.
​
Leaning heavily against the rubble, I felt dizzy. Blood seeped from my drenched clothing, and my limbs shook uncontrollably like trembling leaves.
​
'Shit.'
​
This time, I took a serious beating.
​
The only small comfort was that the Arch Lich must be just as badly off, if not worse.
​
- You foolish human!
​
I know. I know already.
​
While the echoes of reprimand rang in my skull, I spread my palm and whispered to myself.
​
'Inventory open. Summon.'
​
Pop!
​
Everything happened simultaneously.
​
From a subspace pocket, once belonging to Lee Jeong-Ryong, I retrieved an item now mine to command.
​
'Top-grade potion.'
​
Could Lee Jeong-Ryong have ever imagined that the two emergency potions he'd packed would both end up in my hands?
​
My fingers shook as I uncorked the Top-grade potion, desperate to drink it like it was the very elixir of life.
​
But just as I raised it to my lips.
​
Thud, swoosh!
​
"…Huh?"
​
It all happened in an instant.
​
A black vine shot up from the concrete debris, lashed at my wrist, and sent the potion arcing through the air, disappearing into the fog.
​
As I watched a few droplets disperse into the dusty air and sink into the earth, I muttered,
​
"Dark Vine."
​
A spell all too familiar.
​
The Skeleton Warlord groaned.
​
- It's him.
​
I lifted my gaze. A red light flickered through the dense fog like a distant flame.
​
Approaching was a figure, three meters tall with a sinister black gleam. It resembled a human, yet bore an essence that defied such a simple label as it emerged from the fog with heavy, deliberate steps.
​
- You, human.
​
The voice was low, heavy with unmistakable rage.
​
The Skeleton Warlord trembled within my Inventory, and a faint smile crossed my lips.
​
"You damn bastard. I was drinking that."
​
- Your struggle ends here.
​
Shriek, snap!
​
I had no chance to react — when the Arch Lich flicked his fingers, Lee Jeong-Ryong’s ordinary-looking subspace pocket was swept into the distance by the Dark Vine.
​
- Your shallow tricks will no longer work.
​
With each word he spoke, the magic encircling the Arch Lich stirred to life.
​
Yet, just as I bore grave injuries, his power too seemed diminished.
​
My White Flames spear that had scorched through his chest was unmistakably the cause.
​
'I can do this.'
​
Summoning my strength, I pushed myself upright. Extending my hand, I summoned a spear from my Inventory, clasping it firmly.
​
"The spear stuck in your chest really suits you. Should I add another so you're symmetric?"
​
- Do you think you will have the chance?
​
"Of course. Seeing your state, it seems quite possible."
​
- Human, you always fail to distinguish between bravery and recklessness. Foolish, truly foolish.
​
The Arch Lich, with a booming laugh, spread his arms wide.
​
Instead of his robe, now reduced to cinders by my previous assault, pitch-black magic surged from his form, taking shape.
​
'That's a...'
​
A menacing vortex of magic, its presence alone ominous.
​
Instinctively, I grasped the Arch Lich’s intentions.
​
'Gate.'
​
It appeared volatile, on the verge of eruption, yet it was unmistakably shaping into a gate.
​
The next words from the Arch Lich confirmed my suspicions.
​
- It's not complete yet... but if I can defeat you, I can complete it.
​
Suddenly, a deep voice, as if echoing from the heavens, caused the air itself to quiver.
​
- Come forth. Gate Open.
​
"…!"
​
I had to intervene somehow. But the pain hindered my movements, and the transformation had already begun.
​
I watched, eyes wide, as the next moment unfolded.
​
Boom!
​
The sparse rays of sunlight, which had been meekly filtering through the ashen clouds, vanished entirely.
​
As the sky split with a deafening roar, a tempest raged around us, and the ensuing darkness rose like a primordial giant.
​
Whoosh!
​
The flickering darkness ballooned from the heart of the ruined cityscape.
​
Rising as tall as a skyscraper and spanning wider than a football field, it dwarfed any Gate I had ever encountered, stirring a primal fear deep within my bones.
​
- Ah, aah.
​
Even the undead monster, the Skeleton Warlord, trembled at the sight.
​
As I stared transfixed at the Gate, a critical reminder flashed through my mind.
​
'I must stop it. No matter what.'
​
Though it wasn't fully formed, leaving it unchecked could unleash an unimaginable catastrophe.
​
Millions, possibly tens of millions, could perish.
​
And... among them might be those dear to me.
​
Mr. Choi, steadfast on the battlefield, and Shao Shen, to whom I had unexpectedly grown close.
​
Should the Arch Lich extend his reach beyond China to the peninsula... even the members of the Peace Guild and my cherished family would face dire peril.
​
'I must go.'
​
Pain and terror had seized my body, but it was sheer determination that propelled me forward.
​
Drawing on every reserve of strength, I rallied my Qi as my wounded meridians protested sharply, spurring fresh blood to seep from my wounds.
​
But I could not falter. I only had this one shot, this one opportunity.
​
'Brilliant Path of Fire.'
​
With each agonizing step, my battered legs drove me forward, leaving a blazing trail in my wake.
​
At its end awaited the catalyst of this chaos.
​
The one whose death could also end this.
​
'Die.'
​
One Strike.
​
Time seemed to slow as I drove my spear forward with all my strength.
​
The tornado I unleashed barreled toward him.
​
Boom!
​
And amidst the sea of blue flames that enveloped the world, his mocking laughter and his words sliced through the inferno.
​
- Blink.
​
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I had a dream that cloning humans passed through Congress and we were allowed to clone given a license. It started with couples with infertility cloning their DNA to have their child, but secret items began to put up. It was soon found out that only one part of the DNA was needed and the way the organism came out was completely customizable.
They could grow to an adult, you could enhance how much they like you, you change anything at will that was legal.
After work, I passed by my friend’s desk and strand of hair on the keyboard. I took it to the embassy and asked to make a 25 year old woman who loved me and cared for me with her being. I was honest and told them that I was never loved or wanted by anyone in my life and I just want a lifelong romantic companion to keep me company.
Apparently, they never met someone with this request and the two men in hazmat suits went to the back to their director. The director came out, an old man and he looked at me with disgust … and pity. After an intense minute of him staring me, he just muttered the words “Fine. Use the product waiver before you start it up.” One of the guys in the suits began to complain about how morally wrong this was.
And the other guy took me over this large machine, and asked if I had any samples of what my girlfriend would look like. I gave him the strand of hair and he deposited in the machine. He took a scan of my face and body, and set the romantic and emotional capability to 100%. He let me customize how she would look — and strangely, I made her close to the woman I fell in love with. He said it would take about a month to get her to come out with the ability to talk, speak, understand, and develop into a woman.
I waited and when I came out to pick her up, she rushed into my arms and hugged me. We had an incubation period where we sat and talked for hours in a room, alone. And it was very emotional. Never have I had a woman talk to me with so much vigor, so much interest, that asking her to be my girlfriend was as easy as asking for a pencil for a test.
When we got home, we didn’t do anything perverted. We just sat back and held each other. She talked me as if she knew me for over a decade. I told her I don’t make that much and she said “that’s fine, I’ll be your side regardless, sweetie.”
I saw her give a huge grin and I woke up crying.
I wanna go back.

I've been using my Dygma Defy for several months now. It integrated quite well with most of my workflows, from programming to 3d modeling and drawing, I finally have the layers and macros configured exactly how I want them.
The only thing that keeps me going back to my old keyboard is lack of proper KVM support (I was about to ask for help about it not working and I saw the "do not plug it into KVM" line on the pinned post). Since I need to work between macOS/Windows/Linux, I cannoy really use the Defy as much as I want to.
Are there any plans on supporting KVM in the near future? I may end up needing to mover to the Glove80 if I can't find a way to make the Dygma to easily switch between computers.

This is not intended to sound facetious; I genuinely do not understand why they are so supportive of Palestine. Nevermind Israel vs Palestine for a second. I've followed Propagandhi's music (and of course social and political stances) for 20 years and it seems to me like Palestine qualifies for nearly every injustice that Propagandhi have ever rallied against.
There was an image floating around on twitter of a group of American protestors holding a giant rainbow flag with "Gays for Palestine" painted on it. How clueless can people be? Palestine is one of the most staunchly anti LGBT countries (states) on the planet, with exposure of homosexual acts often resulting in years of imprisonment, if not rogue murder by Hamas.
Palestine is one of the most staunchly anti-women's rights countries (states) on the planet. Women in Palestine cannot even wear bathing suits. They certainly can't have abortions. I would urge anyone to read the laundry list of thinga women either aren't allowed to do or are forced to do in Palestine.
Yunus al-Astal, a chief legislator of Hamas stated, publicly, that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next, therefore we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews." Gee, sounds like something the Nazis would have said. Aren't Propagandhi anti Nazi?
If a group of abortion hating, frat daddy loving, evangelical baptists in Tennessee were being bombed into oblivion, I would expect Propagandhi to celebrate this as long-deserved retribution. Or at best I'd expect them to not say anything at all. I understand Propagandhi's general stance of being broadly anti-war, but of all the groups to vocally defend and rally awareness and sympathy for, to me, I don't see how Palestine qualifies for Propagandhi's sympathy any more than the KKK would. What am I missing?

I am a GM preparing adventures that are rather short and take like 3 to 5 sessions (I love writing smaller stories, that's why). So, the atmosphere of my adventures naturally change a lot. And I really like creating a rich atmosphere, that drags the players into the world and story.
BUT... looking up images and saving them as little collages, finding the correct music (I am rather picky with that) with some soundeffects maybe and noting down my light setup for multiple scenes takes so much time and requires me to save everything in a different place...This is what makes creating atmosphere really exhausting to me and results in less frequent sessions. Then there is also the challenge of finding the correct words and so on, but I manage with that.
Sometimes I wish you somehow could do that in a different way, but I have no idea how. Am I the only one with this issue? xD Maybe you got some tools I don't know of that can help me?

I got the game since a lot of people have said it's one of the best games ever made. But I can't get used to the camera controls.
To those who played it on PC with a keyboard and mouse how did you manage? Is there any settings I can change to make the camera behave normally like others game?

Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine

This is gonna be a long post, and it’s mostly incoherent ramblings but I’ve been on the fence about recovery for the past few days and it’s driving me insane.
To preface this, I am 15F and have struggled with a restrictive ED for the past 2-3 years. I’ve lost ~50 pounds in that time, and am now bmi 18s, but I’ve been stuck with some kind of EDNOS for a while now. The whole restrict, binge, compensate ect. It got really bad this year as the purging aspect flared up at the start of the year, and I transitioned into more heavy restricting around March. Now I’m doing high intake, and have had some more success with not binging, but I still do sometimes, which I compensate for. DESPITE ALL THAT, I’m still not underweight. I’m about to be, but that last bit just doesn’t want to come off, and I know it’s because my body doesn’t want to completely shut down, but it’s so frustrating. It’s also one of the reasons I don’t feel like I deserve recovery. Before my restrictive ED, I feel like I had some sort of BED. I remember constantly just eating and eating. Safe to say I was an overweight kid, meaning I got told by everyone around me that I was fat and needed to lose weight, thus devolving into this. I’ve also always had bad body image issues, and even though I’ve lost like half my body weight from when I was younger, I feel like I look the same. What’s weird is, I lost my period pretty early on into my restrictive ED. Probably around BMI 25, which I know doesn’t apply to children but just to give a number ya know. It was never stable (I only had it for like a year at that point), but there was a period of time where I didn’t have it for almost 10 months, before being put on progesterone. All that to say, I’m scared that my set point weight is in the overweight or even obese category. I’m scared that I’ll overshoot and become fat and ugly. Even when I was restricting, just not as heavily, I was in the middle of the normal category. As I lost more and more weight, more people started complimenting me too. Adults/family friends would always comment on how much prettier I looked, and how impressive my weight loss was. Acquaintances and fiends I haven’t seen in a long time would be astonished at how different I looked (in a good way). I also felt more confident in wearing the clothes I wanted to wear, more jiraikei-coquette-cutecore stuff. I liked the feeling of not fitting into my old clothes, and wearing xxsmalls. Another reason I don’t want to recover. I can’t imagine dealing with the comments that’ll come with weight gain. All the talking behind my back ec. I feel like I’ve also lost my personality. All I focus on is my eating disordefood, and when I talk or rant to my friends it’s about the fucking eating disorder, or some kind of effect I’m feeling because of it. I’m scared that once I get weight restored, I’ll have nothing to me, and that I’ll just be the fat kid. The people I see at school and even my friends make it really hard for me to accept that I’ll gain weight as well. It’s not their fault, but they all seem to be ‘naturally skinny’. They eat whatever they want whenever, but can stop or say no to food just as easily. They have thigh gaps and slim frames, which I worked so hard to destroy my body for. And they just have it. It’s not fair. Whenever I see them eat and stop, I always wonder how they do it. I’m constantly feeling like I could devour an entire buffet by myself. Since I developed this so early on, I was probably never able to grow to my true height. My family isn’t tall by any means, but I’m only 5’1, if even that. There’s also the thing about my boobs and ass too. Sorry if this is inappropriate, but I’m at that age where I care bout it somewhat (not all that much, but that’s a whole nother story regarding my gender). My family is stacked in this department, and it makes me sad whenever they comment on my assets being small. My friends being concerned whenever I tell them about my intake or what I feel makes me want to recover, but it also makes me take pride in the fact that I’m sick enough to give two shits over. My family, especially my grandma, crying over what I’m doing to myself makes me want to recover so bad. TLDR; I want to recover, for being able to eat whatever whenever, to not think about food all the time, to not feel cold and dead all the time, to eat with my family and friends without stressing, to grow taller and get my, assets, back, ect, but my biggest opposition is weight and fat gain. There’s also the thing with recovery where water retention and bloating is prevalent, which is what I experience when binging. I don’t like that feeling. It’s also summer, so yk.

Ok so, I (14F) have known this boy (14M) who I will call “A” since I was in third grade, and we are obviously in the same middle school. We are both incredibly intelligent and good at writing, however people always put him above me. I feel like he isn’t more successful than me academically though. Infact I am more successful than him, i’m in the gifted program and in student council neither of which he is in.
Anyways, I have always resented him because he gets more praise for the same writing and work that I do. I think we’re both funny, I always make him laugh and he makes me laugh. However, I can’t help but to resent him even though I think we both have the same qualities; hes attractive and i’m very sure I am aswell, hes smart and I know I am aswell and we’re both popular and funny; adults are always saying so.
Its just like hes so perfect and I would give anything to recieve the same kind of praise he does. I mean even I adore him but like not in a romantic way, its just like hes always been someone who likes classical literature even though nobody else in our grade is intrigued by it and its just heinous knowing I probably won’t be able to speak to him in highschool because he’s one of my favorite people. I’m not really sure if how I feel about him is romantic, like sometimes I just want to hug him if that makes sense lmao. Oh I included our writing from sixth grade when we did a group project together copy pasted ↓
Mine: As soon as the recollection of the three bodies came cascading upon Bass in a choking flood of stinging details, Bass began to perspire and tremble. Something that was a recurrence in this impeccable novel is the mention of the Comanches- a belligerent indigenous group of people to America. The name was sure to bring fear to even the brawniest of men, Comanche had tolled in them like a portentous gong. There was a sinister and unlikely coincidence between the violent happening around the Native American territory that made the Comanche one of the most hideous of omens. In reality though the Comanches were a brutal community, bring treated with a biblical veneration. However I would like to take a mature and systematic evaluation of why they may do these things. For one, us Americans drove them out if the land they had lived in for centuries, brutally burning down their communities and making them walk grueling trails and rough rocks to arrive at a territory riddled with mediocrity. Overall I believed that the Comanches were a symbol or vim and freedom throughout this novel.
His: There are several prominent names that have established themselves as important threads upon the rich tapestry of Western History; Several Outlaws and desperados are recalled for the formidable forced they possessed upon their communities. Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday- all of these names have been of flourishing recognition, yet there are only mere vestiges of traces upon a true legend; a figure of immaculate morals (a trait that was a rare rose within a grotesque haven of weeds.) This very man that I speak of was born into slavery and- at the age of seventeen- relinquished the clutches of his owner prerequisite to venturing into the sibylline, crime-riddled depths of the Indian Territory where he would elude the treacherous dangers amidst his path to grow older to be a man of law; a valiant marshal in which turned a horrendous domain (the indian territory) into a place of order. This man went by the name of Bass Reeves.

I f19 have never been one to date especially in highschool. There have been guys but never relationship. This new guy started at my work and I have huge crush on him. I also work my with my best friend and we have kind of all have became friends. We will spend all night online playing video games with each other. Him and I also exchange messages pretty frequently. He has also made some comments that make me feel like he feels sort of the same way. Such as on discord one night with my friend and I we were talking about relationships and he said somthing along the lines of that he could be talking to his future girlfriend right now. My best friend is married so he couldn’t have been talking about her. He has also complimented my laugh while on a group call with several people. He’s also complimented my hair. I have alot of self image problems and I’m definitely never the prettiest girl in the room so these comments definitely make me happy. I also have a problem that he is a nice guy so I could just be taking his kindness the wrong way. Can you guys please help me with how to proceed. What should I say to him I’m so bad at the flirting thing. How do I know if I’m just making this stuff up. I’ve been day dreaming about a future with him all morning.

Ann sat on the table next to the first aid kit. She looked confused and responded in a subdued voice, "...how exactly do you fall out of a car?" Weston grabbed the alcohol wipe before Ann could reach it. There were at least a dozen zeds stalking around outside. Maybe more. The two of them were mostly secure as long as they didn't make any loud noises.
"It was cramped and the key was, well, sorta... the hiking bag maybe got hooked... I don't know," Weston sounded annoyed. "I fell out."
Before the apocalypse, Ann's whole life had been planned out. She was going to do an internship this summer. She was starting her last year of high school next year. She was planning to attend Louisville State University. Well, was, but she didn't know what to do now. Weston peeled back the dirty bandage and started cleaning the wound himself.
While Weston tended his cut, Ann examined it. His sleeve had been ripped off. The scratch was not too deep, but his arm and shirt were covered in blood. Mostly other people's blood, she assumed, provided you could even call them "people" anymore. The open wound was more intense than any of the images in her book, First Aid Volume I. Ann wanted to help, but Weston preferred to be self-sufficient in these situations. She had learned that much in their short time together.
Now thinking about it, Ann realized this was the first time they've sat down together since he saved her life. It must have been a week or two ago at this point. Ann still couldn't quite remember what happened. The book described it a "traumatic" experience.
trau-mat-ic. Adjective. Emotionally disturbing or distressing.
Synonyms: upsetting, horrifying, terrifying
Ann scoffed to herself. Her entire existence had became a never-ending trauma. One moment she was pinned down by a zed. The next, a crowbar swung out of nowhere and caved it's head in. Then she woke up in this maintenance building. The room was spacious, but full of large crates and random junk, making it rather cramp. It had a couple of entrances, but was otherwise unremarkable. The only window had a sheet over it. Since the power had went out almost a month ago, the room was shrouded in darkness except for the dim light cast by an old lantern.
Ann hated everything about this place. The boredom of sitting inside all day was excruciating. She felt trapped.
She couldn't take it anymore.
"Am I a prisoner?" Ann asked bluntly.
"What?" Weston was bewildered. "Umm... no. No, of course not."
"Well, then can I come with you on your–"
Weston interrupted her, "Absolutely not. You wouldn't be safe out there."
"Am I even safe in here?"
"The world is no place for a kid right now," Weston lectured her, " and you're lucky to be alive as it is."
"No. Look at your arm. YOU'RE lucky to be alive," Ann retorted, starting to raise her voice, "and I'm NOT A KID!"
"SHHH," Weston snapped in a harsh tone, "The Answer Is No. Period."
"SO I AM A PRISONER!" Ann yelled back, her face red with anger.
Thump. Ann gasped and covered her mouth.
Thump. Thump. The main door shook against the dead weight slamming against it.
"God. Dammit." Weston cursed under his breadth, "Is This How You Want To Die?" He hastily wrapped a ripped sheet around his arm and grabbed his crowbar. He rushed toward the side entrance.
Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump. The beating increased in frequency as a second zed joined the first.
Weston swung the side door open, revealing a small exterior area enclosed by a high metal fence. Another zed, alerted by the sudden movement, smashed itself against the chain links. Weston vaulted over the fence and darted around a corner before it could react.
Thump-Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump-Thump. More zeds joined in to smash the side door.
Ann fell off the table and landed on the ground. There. I can hide under there. She tried to crawl toward a nearby bed, but she was frozen with terror. Come on. Move. MOVE. Please move.
Swing. Swing. Push. Swing. Smash.
Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump.
The main door swelled under the pounding pressure.
Swing. Thump-Thump. Swing. Smash. Thump. Thump. CRACK.
The door burst into pieces. Scuffled footsteps poured into the interior.
Ann could hear the zed's heavy breathing on the other side of the crates. She squeezed her eyes closed, petrified with fear. The zed stalked closer and closer. Her heart was pounding so hard she could hardly take a breadth.
Weston dashed in through the main entrance and yelled at the top of his lungs, "HEY!" Several zeds turned and shambled full speed in his direction.
Swing. Swing. Smash. Brains splattered across the room, drenching the nearby crates in a chunky, dark ooze.
Weston bolted back outside. Ann could hear Weston continuing to yell frantically.
"OVER HERE!"
"Hey"
"over here"
"..."
""
The chorus of undead snarls faded toward the sound of Weston's voice.
Then silence.
= = =
Ann sat alone under the table, still too afraid to cry. Weston usually said the same thing every time he left: stay right there, be quite, and I'll be back before sunset.
Night had fallen. Ann knew Weston wasn't coming back. A slight breeze echoed through the open doors. What have I done? She leaned her head on the crate next to her and a tear ran down her cheek. I'm so useless.
She was exhausted, and so tired. So desperately, inhumanly tired. She closed her eyes, not able to stay awake any longer. So what if this is how I die?
I deserve it.
= = =
Weston returned in the morning and found Ann hiding under the table. "How did you get under here?" he said gently while reaching down to pick her up.
"Fine," Weston said to himself, carefully placing the doll in his satchel.

I have had body issues due to trauma my whole life. I had always thought I was fat but looking back I was always very slim. People always told me k was pretty and could be a model but I never saw that in myself. Growing up in an abusive family, I was put down a lot and had my insecurities used against me. This developed a lot of self esteem issues creating an unsure image of myself. Before dating my current boyfriend, I was with my ex of 13 years who was verbally and emotionally abusive as well. He would call me fat when I wasn’t and then anorexic when I had actually lost more weight being down to 103lbs in my mid twenties. In 2019 we had broken up and even though he was no good for me and I knew that, I had a very hard time with it. I also lost my dad a few months later which I think sealed the deal for what was to come. Covid rules went in to place around this time making it impossible to go get groceries yet Uber eats and things like that were still running to an extent. I lost myself and would order out a lot. I feel like I lost such a huge part of me that I no longer cared about myself and before knowing it I had gained lots of weight.
In 2021 I tried dating again and had no problem meeting new guys. I’m sure it was my personality that attracted them to me which was great and what I wanted however nothing worked out long term. I knew I wanted to lose weight but it was very hard for me and I didn’t even know where to start. I continued dating and said if I found someone who liked me for me now, then I’d know it’s real and would cherish me when I did lose weight. In 2022 I met a guy like no other. I almost swiped left but something drew me to him. He was awesome and so sweet. He was everything I ever wanted in a man and he seemed to like me for me, all of me. Through dating my self confidence came back, if anything it rose and I would actually feel hot and beautiful, something I never thought about myself before. He never put me down, told me my body was beautiful and made me feel amazing but in the back of my mind I still knew I wanted to lose weight. He supported me but told me I didn’t need to lose weight and that I was perfect the way I was. Throughout our whole relationship he would compliment me, making me feel on top of the world. Him liking me for me was a main thing that made me fall for him. I had never felt more comfortable and safe in my whole life.
I ended up getting pregnant and since giving birth, I had lost all my pregnancy weight and I think even more weight on top of that. The other day I was looking at my id from 2021 compared to now and there was such a huge difference in my face size. As of now, I’m about 176lbs and 5”6 for context. For BMI I am 1 point in the overweight mark but I see that as just 1 point over average which I know I can easily get down to. We were having a discussion yesterday and I asked him a personal question about our future, he snapped on me but later told me he wants me to lose weight. This came as an absolute shock to me. Not because I know I need to and want to but that this was coming from the same guy who always praised my body and made me feel like I was beautiful no matter what. It crushed me hearing this though I know it was true. What really got me is he said something along the lines of throughout our relationship he would look at me and not like the way I looked but overlook it. That really hurt and made me feel like our whole relationship was a lie. If so, why did he always compliment my body? Why did he try to make me feel so good about myself? Just the night before I was in the bathtub bent over where my stomach probably looked gross and he randomly came in and whistled at me. When I brought this up to him, he said it was because he thought I looked good. Everything he told me just contradicted each other. He would say sometimes he found me attractive the way I was and sometimes he didn’t like it. I was like so what, do you just pick and choose? How am I supposed to know? He claimed he was just as confused. He also said a few other contradictory things about our relationship, complaining we don’t do anything (we have a small child and no one to babysit) and saying I’m boring however every event, trip, outing was sought out and planned by me alone. So again I was very confused. He was really mean about it all but continued to say he loves me, love our time together, never met anyone like me, sees a future with me. How am I supposed to take all that? I’m not at all making excuses for him but he has been very stressed lately in not finding a job and I can see it’s been getting to him the last few days so I’m not sure if this helped in causing him to lash out at me in any way.
With him saying he wants me to lose weight, it was also confusing to hear as I have spent the last year begging him to help me out in regards to our home life. I struggle mentally but still do everything cool, clean, take care of our baby (he does help out) but he leaves me with so much mental load that I have to think for him. He’s has a task list of things to do for the last two years that he still hasn’t done and I have to keep track of that for him as well as his appointments. Anyone who’s had a baby especially a single mother would know how hard it is to do it on your own, I feel like with him I have another child I have to take care of. The responsibilities in our life are definitely not equal. He gets up, makes himself a big breakfast, has the time to work out and do the things he likes but me, I do a full day of work and when our baby goes to sleep I am completely exhausted that I mostly crash out within an hour or 2. He leaves me no time for myself to work out even if I wanted to and along with the mental load I am just exhausted. I also want to add that I have been having some health issues since the new year and I actually made a few changes. I cold turkey stopped drinking soda and changed my eating habits. He said he was proud of me and how quickly I could do that to take care of myself. But now he’s acting like I’ve made no changes at all even though I have lost weight both since I’ve met him and since giving birth. Of course I want to lose weight but now it almost feels wrong to do so. I don’t want to do it just because he said he ants me to. I want to do it at my own pace in my own way because I want to. It’s always been a goal of mine. And now I feel if I do lose weight and he starts complimenting me, it’ll just be wrong because I will always remember that he never liked me for me. I am already feeling extremely uncomfortable around him and wearing more clothes to hide my body. Also everything now feels like it was a lie so I don’t know how to move forward or if I even should.
I am really just so confused and don’t know where to go from here. Is this a reasonable request or should I move on? Opinions? Suggestions?
*** I forgot to add that he tells me he sees old pictures of me and wants me to look like that though those pictures are 10 years old and I’m not that same person anymore. Of course I’ve grown up and don’t always doll myself up to go to clubs and such anymore. Plus I was an unhealthy weight, you could see my bones sticking out. How should I take this?