#Khost

[molkolsdal]

KAFEEL, KHOST PROVINCE

“In Afghanistan, one of the traditional hats is called Pakol, and in Khost, the tradition is that men wear their pakol decorated with flowers. In the village of Qaley Fakiram, located in the district of Tani, lives a family made up of 4 brothers and many cousins. In this family we nurture a particular passion for flowers, and all the male members wear a pakol decorated with fresh flowers. They were originally six brothers, but two left the country. There are therefore four left, plus a cousin considered as a brother, to continue the tradition.”

Oriane Zerah

[jkflesh]

Tactical Pagan LP

Mastered by Justin K Broadrick. Out November 8.

"Justin K. Broadrick has spent the last 25 years cultivating a fertile creative hub with his Avalanche Recordings imprint, which is now joining forces with GIVE/TAKE for the release of the new album from regular collaborator Andy Swan. Tactical Pagan sees Swan setting his sights on the early industrial soundscapes of the ’80s, with the forthcoming self-titled album presenting a blend of downtempo and trippy electronics and rhythms with post-industrial noise and guitar-driven grind; recorded directly to 8-track and mastered by Broadrick, Tactical Pagan is due to arrive in digital and CD formats via GIVE/TAKE and Avalanche Recordings on November 8, with pre-orders opening on November 1. Broadrick and Swan have a long association, having previously worked together during the formative years of the FINAL project from 1982-1986, the latter subsequently transitioning to dance music before moving into the more experimental post-metal sounds of Iroha and Khost; Broadrick would collaborate with Khost under the banner of Godflesh on the 2016 Needles into the Ground EP. The Tactical Pagan album marks his third outing with GIVE/TAKE as the label had released his Pale Sketcher album Golden Skin in 2022, as well as the 2023 co-release of Digital Demons by KK Null and Dao De Noise."

[gbhbl]

Interview: Damian Bennett & Andy Swan of Khost (Audio)

Released on September 20th, 2024, via Cold Spring Records, ‘Many Things Afflict Us Few Things Console Us’ is the 5th album from Birmingham-based industrial/doom metal band Khost. We spoke to Damian Bennett & Andy Swan of Khost about the new album and so much more.

Released on September 20th, 2024, via Cold Spring Records, ‘Many Things Afflict Us Few Things Console Us’ is the 5th album from Birmingham-based industrial/doom metal band Khost. An album that sees the band entering new nightmarish territories, alongside their signature walls of detuned guitar, corroded percussion and VHS atmospherics. Photo Credit: Abby-Helasdottir With inspiration for many of…

[qurbanjaan]

May I ask how you managed to escape your country, culture, and family? I hope you're doing well, you deserve the best 🩶❤️

Of course, thank you so much for the sweet words. Well, honestly it was just a lot of luck.

My father was a very bad man and my mom was complacent and agreed with his ideologies, however my paternal grandmother was a very strong woman and my mother’s family always disagreed with everything they pushed on me.

As I commented on the blog about the Burqa, I was given to my aunt when I was a baby because they didn’t want a girl, so her and her husband are what I consider to be my actual parents. However, I was taken back by my birth parents to Khost when I was around one/two years old and I wasn’t allowed contact with my aunt and uncle until last year (when I ran away). I owe a lot of my freedom to my grandmother too, she was the one to buy me my first phone (I wasn’t allowed to have one) and was the one who ensured I stayed in school and stopped the marriage my father tried to sell me for.

But then, when I was 18, my grandmother was as already dead and I was so tired, alone and locked up inside my house that my life had no meaning to myself anymore and honestly, even though it’s embarrassing to admit, I was losing contact with reality. During a fight with my mother, my father tried to kill me. He would accuse me of being a bastard (which I’m unfortunately not, because my biggest wish would be not to be his daughter) and he tried to “clean the family honor”, if you know what I mean. But, I was making tea and when he approached I threw a pot of boiling water on him.

Honestly I feel a little proud of myself for doing that, but he ended up blind and in a coma. Unfortunately he still remembers and thinks about me daily and it haunts me to my core.

I DONT ADVISE ANYONE TO DO SUCH THING AND PLEASE DONT FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE, IT MAY END UP BAD FOR YOU.

So, when it happened, I gathered my things, explained everything for my aunt and asked for help. She was surprised that I was fine after so many years and that’s how I managed to scape. Because I had help.

But now, my parents don’t know where I live and I doubt I will ever see my mother again. My aunt lives in constant fear someone will hunt me down, and I struggle a lot with my identity because at the same time I want to help afghan women, I feel so embarrassed to be half afghan because of everything that happens to afghan women. It’s hard to deal with everything but I’m lucky to be alive. This is a very short resume about my situation, I can enter more details if you are interested.

Again, thank you so much for the question and for accessing my blog.

[lost-carcosa]

Senior Taliban official hits out at own group’s policies towards women

Deputy foreign minister says ‘there is no excuse’ for shutting schools for girls and women

A senior Taliban official has called on the militant group to open schools for women and girls, a rare sign of internal divisions around one of the flagship policies of Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s acting deputy foreign minister, said the edict forbidding girls and women from schools was not in line with Sharia law as claimed.

“We request the leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education,” he said, claiming that “there is no excuse for this and never will be”. “In the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women,” the Taliban minister said at a Madrassa graduation ceremony in Khost province.

The 62-year-old UN-sanctioned official said his own leaders were “committing injustice against 20 million people”, referring to the women who make up roughly half of the Afghan population.

“We have deprived them of all their rights; they have no inheritance rights, no share in determining their husband’s rights, they are sacrificed in forced marriages, they are not allowed to study, they cannot go to mosques, the doors of universities and schools are closed to them, and they are not allowed in religious schools either,” the acting deputy foreign minister said.

After taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban pledged to govern the country based on a moderate interpretation of Sharia law, and to maintain many of the rights and freedoms enjoyed by women under the previous Western-backed government. Yet within months they had shut classes for girls beyond grade six, and colleges were closed to female students at the end of 2022. In some cases students were sent home at gun-point.

Mr Stanikzai led a team of negotiators at the Taliban’s political office in Doha before US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, and he has criticised the crackdown on girls’ education before. But his latest comments represent the first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The international community has cited the gender apartheid in Afghanistan as it has denied recognition to the Taliban regime, including in resolutions at the United Nations. Experts and human rights activists monitoring the situation in Afghanistan have said the ban will deeply affect the country’s female population.

The Taliban claims it plans to reopen schools and universities for women but has given no clear details of when or how it plans to do so. Meanwhile, a number of the Taliban’s senior leaders are reported to have sent their children to school overseas.

[global-musings]

Kafeel, Khost Province - Oriane Zerah

“In Afghanistan, one of the traditional hats is called Pakol, and in Khost, the tradition is that men wear their pakol decorated with flowers. In the village of Qaley Fakiram, located in the district of Tani, lives a family made up of 4 brothers and many cousins. In this family we nurture a particular passion for flowers, and all the male members wear a pakol decorated with fresh flowers. They were originally six brothers, but two left the country. There are therefore four left, plus a cousin considered as a brother, to continue the tradition.”

[beardedmrbean]

A senior Taliban minister, who publicly condemned the group’s ban on education of girls and women, has reportedly fled Afghanistan amid fears of arrest.

Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s political deputy at the foreign ministry, had called on other leaders to open schools for girls and women in January and said the edict forbidding them from schools was not in line with Sharia law as the hardline rulers claimed.

“There is no excuse for this – not now and not in the future,” Mr Stanikzai, a political studies and military school graduate, had said. “We are being unjust to 20 million people,” referring to nearly half of the Afghanistan population of girls and women.

His public remarks, made at a graduation ceremony in Khost province, were the first such against the Taliban’s education diktat and confirmed a rare sign of internal divisions around one of the flagship policies of Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.

For more than three years, the Taliban have imposed a strict nationwide ban on female education, preventing girls and women from attending school beyond the sixth grade despite international isolation.

Shortly after the speech, the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada reportedly ordered Mr Stanikzai’s arrest and issued a travel ban against him, prohibiting him from stepping back in Afghanistan.

However, the Taliban leader had left for the United Arab Emirates before he could have been held, reported the news channel Afghanistan International.

Mr Stanikzai also confirmed to the local media last week that he had left for Dubai but for health reasons.

This is not the first time the senior Taliban leader, viewed as moderate within the Taliban ranks, called for restoring the education of Afghan girls and women.

In September 2022, a year after the Taliban took control of Kabul, Mr Stanikzai had said that no one has a religious reason which can justify depriving girls of education, calling schools and colleges obligatory for both genders.

His escape to a neighbour ally comes amid reports of a growing rift inside the two factions of the Taliban leadership, with power centres situated in Kabul and Kandahar, from where the Taliban’s supreme leader assumes the powerful seat and rules without making any public appearance.

There is debate about the education ban inside Taliban leadership, according to the US’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), an autonomous body overseeing the reconstruction of the war-battered nation.

Last week, the Taliban’s deputy minister of interior Mohammad Nabi Omari was seen breaking down and reduced to tears in a public gathering in the same province of Khost as he spoke about the group’s strict ban on education affecting girls and women.

The video of the minister’s emotional outburst, during a ceremony at a school in the province, has been circulated widely on social media.

“All I know is that even if [girls’ education] is not a religious obligation or tradition, it is at least permissible,” he said as he covered his face and broke down.

“May God guide us. Religious studies are allowed, so modern sciences should also be permitted,” the deputy minister said, reported Afghanistan International.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

[omegaremix]

Finds For 2016.

Diet Cig “Scene Sick”

Tame Impala “New Person Same Old Mistakes”

Cold Cave ft. Black Rain & Genesis P. Orridge “Comprehension”

Computer Magic “Be Fair”

George Clanton “Notice Me”

Prurient “Dragonflies To Sew You Up”

Tropic Of Cancer “Stay Safe”

Mssingno Scope

Blanck Mass “Atrophies”

Holydrug Couple, The “Follow Your Way”

Russell Haswell “Spring Break Extended“

In Aeternam Vale “Dust Under Brightness”

Sophie Product

Consumer Electronics Dollhouse Songs

Blanck Mass “Dead Format”

Hibou “Above Us”

UXO self-titled

Follakzoid “Directo Al Sol

Moon Duo “Free Action”

Tearist Living: 2009-Present

Deerhunter “Ad Astra”

Beliefs “1992”

Ducktails “Don’t Wanna Let You Know”

Tame Impala “Nangs”

Candy Snatchers, The “If You Can’t Have Fun, You Ain’t Fun” (live)

Shana Falana “There’s A Way”

DOM “Burning Bridges”

Girlpool “Before The World Was Big”

Holydrug Couple, The “Paisley”

Ash Koosha “Harbour”

Dystopian Future Movies “Paint It Red”

Angry Angles “Things Are Moving (All The Time)”

Polysick “Smudge Hawaii”

Kleenex “Nice”

18+ Fore

Innsyter “Cut Eleven”

Airliner “Her Crutch”

Clams Casino “Drawn” (Crim3s RMX)

Com Truise “Silicon Tare”

Crim3s “Stay Ugly”

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers “Born To Love”

Imaginary Pants Kites At Night

Ana Lola Roman “Klutch” (Com Truise RMX)

Costavision Lo-Fi Exotica

Coachwhips “UFO, Please Take Her Home”

Rubs, The “Runaway”

Airliner “Left Orange”

Sheer Mag “Fan The Flames”

JK Flesh Rise Above

Gigi Masin“Tears Of A Clown”

Reatards, The “You Ain’t Fun No Mo’”

Hussy, The “You Know”

Home “Resonance”

TR/ST “This Ready Flesh”

Pastel Ghost “Clouds”

LNDN DRGS “Dope Sick”

Ata Kak Obaa Sima

Hailu Mergia & The Walias “Yemiasleks Fikir”

Christoph De Babalon “Surreal Mirrors”

Gigi Masin “Fata Morgana"

John Carpenter Lost Themes Remixed

Veldt, The “Sanctified”

Zola Jesus “Collapse”

Merzbow & Keiji Haino & Balazs Pandi “How Differ The Instructions Of The Left From The Instructions On The Right”

Cults “Oh My God”

Vektroid “Neo Cali”

FOE “Genie In A Coke Can” (Alec Empire RMX)

Peaches “How You Like My Cut?” (Ziur RMX)

Tex Taiwan “Algorhythm Vision”

Jagwar Ma “Uncertainty” (Mssingno RMX)

Odesza “It’s Only” RMXs

Honeyblood “Sea Hearts”

Connie Laverne “Can’t Live Without You”

Kedr Livanskiy January Sun

Body-San “Shining The Money Ball”

C.V. Jorgensen “Ghetto Svend”

9th Wonder & Buckshot ft. Talib Kweli “Hold It Down”

Uniform “Symptom Of The Universe”

Czarface ft. Vinnie Paz & Cappadonna “Shoguns”

D.I.T.C. “Rock Shyt”

Lizzy Mercier Descloux “Fire”, “Wawa”

David “Baby” Cortez “Happy Organ”

Low Red Center s/t

Alan Turing “God Save The King / Baa Baa Black Sheep / In The Mood”

Dolly Parton “Jolene” (33 RPM)

Tobacco “Gods In Heat”

Pere Ubu “Blow Daddy-O”

La Coka Nostra “Waging War”

Elusive Textures

Technicolor Skull “Technicolor Skull”

Hanin Elias ft. Electrosexual “Hold Me”

IKO 93 “Drag” / “Mutt”

Innsyter Poison Life

Bloom Offering “Bite Their Tongues”

Jlin “Downtown”

Sandro Brugnolini & Stefano Torossi “Effetto Notte”

Comet Gain “(All The) Avenue Girls”

Nick Klein “Anxiety Plae”

Le Matos “Eyes Throat Genitals”

Bill Loose “Slight Misgivings”

L-Fudge Chronic Irresponsibility

Author & Punisher “Lust For Scales”

Sun Ra “The Cosmic Explorer”

Liquids Hot Liqs

Ice Cream Love, Ice Cream

Khost “Deathset” (Godflesh RMX)

Ramleh “Airborne Babel”

L-Fudge ft. DJ Spinna, Shabaam Shadeeq & Talib Kweli “What If?”

Caroline K “Tracking With Close-Ups”

Rosa Yemen “Herpes Simplex”

Jonas Reinhardt “Androma”

Sunrise Ltd. “Our Love Will Grow”

Tearist “Headless”

Red Fetish “Spanish Meths”

Hot Chocolate “Could Have Been Born In The Ghetto”

Vibrators, The “Disco In Moscow”

York Factory Complaint Lost In The Spectacle

Nick Klein I’d Rather Sit Alone

[doroinoue]

okay so i've been listening to the dorohedoro manga soundtrack for a while now, and my morning has been a little hectic so i decided to just ramble about all the songs and what/who i associate them with, and also which songs from the anime ost they remind me of (since the anime ost is very much inspired from the manga ost)

WARNING: DIABOLICAL LEVEL OF YAPPING BELLOW, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!!

you can listen to the songs Here if you haven't, and i'll be going by this order, since thats the official one

Redacted, Recalcitrant, Repressed - khost: this one in my head is literally curse/risu theme and you cannot convince me otherwise Ever. Man Inside The Mouth from the anime ost is im pretty sure inspired from this song too so it All just makes sense. also the title itself reminds me of risu and the way he is and whatnot (im so shit at explaining good lird) also this is me just being insane but i think the voice of the guy singing KINDA fits risu more (the deeper more monstrous voice sounds like curse in my head too), like i love his actual voice too but when i read the manga i definitely dont imagine him with it i expected something more raspy(?), meanwhile aikawa being the one with the smoother voice (his raspy voice fits too giving that Kaiman and yadda yadda) Dont ever let me talk abt risu drhdr bro i dont stfu

Blaka Smoko - VOODOOM: i love this song so much but kai's stupid fucking face pops up in my head when i listen to it and i DONT KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT!!! though yeah uh this is pretty much either his song or the cross eyes in general since the lyrics are "i sell black smoke"..though the deranged laugh really reminds me of him solely. imagine a version of the drhdr manga where black smoke is like weed and they smoke that shit and get high i Think thats rlly funny i dunno what else to say tbh i think me associating the song w kai is preventing me from having too many thoughts about it. However i hope when he like shows up fr (not just in flashbacks) the anime ost makes a remix of this song cuz it genuinely fits (also i just love how this song directly mentions nikaido and kaiman, although a bit nonsensical given the context)

Dorohedoro Zombie Slushi - Candie Hank: im so certain 1000手観音 and another song (i cant remember which one) from the anime ost sampled from this one lmfao. anyway this one just reminds me of zombie ebisu, or ebisu in general. not even like living dead day, literally just zombie ebisu. its probably the vocals tbh, someone in a youtube comment was complaining abt them and another person replied "just imagine ebisu singing it" and i cant get it out of my head now. i can totally see her sing this song, especially knowing shes canonically interested in the manga ost album  (you can see her read the songs of it while checking it out in like episode 4? i think? the one where they follow doll risu around and end up in some cheap clothing store)

Eating food and fighting Wizards - Shitwife: this one makes me very nostalgic, i like how its one of the few songs that isnt just pure nonsensical chaos. like i love those too, infact im bummed out the anime ost doesnt have more chaotic songs given the manga is literally incomprehensible sometimes, but i like how this song kinda shows the more coherent and cheerful side of the story. of course this is just kaiman theme to me, i mean the title and all. i think kaiman would really like this song, he would def listen to it. it also reminds me of that scene where him and nikaido are driving in their motorcycles, it gives the vibe of a drive in the middle of the night to me anyway, not much to say for this one too, i just think its really nice (also the drums go crazy hard)

Enter the Hole - NAH: lovely magic predecessor LOL. perfect for me honestly cuz lovely magic is my fav song from the anime soundtrack. This one just reminds me of hole, i dunno. the brief ethereal part reminds me of the past of the hole though, before the lake of refuse was created (i forgot what they called that shit in the official translation forgive me..lake of refuse sounds cooler either way). thats all tbh

She is a devil - Hanali: devil nikaido theme song what can i say...i literally want this song beat for beat to play at the scene where nikaido grows her devil tail and gets devil high (if they even animate season 2 that far) either that or when theyre selling gyoza at the department store and she goes devil high again and starts beating ass. its so perfect for those scenes also i like to think the distorted singing at the very beginning is like what humans hear when a devil sings, i know it should be more ear bleeding giving the reaction everyone has in canon but whateva!!! also also i like to imagine nikaido was probably hearing something similar while her tail was growing and she was going crazy, i think maybe hearing the singing of devils in your head while slowly turning into one is a cool idea

LIZARD HEAD - Dr. Das: i cant lie this ones...a little boring for me. like the beat is cool and all, but i think this is the one song i have the least to say abt. to reference another youtube comment, they said smth abt imagining kaiman fucking around in hole to this song, and yeah. i see it. i think if the anime animates that little bonus(?) comic abt how kaiman spends his day in hole, they should use smth similar to this song

Transformations - Shackleton: ok i lied this is the one i have to say least about. i dont mind 10+ minute songs, but damn this ones even more boring to me. the pissing sounds arent helping either LOL. though i think if they had to play this song somewhere, or a variation of it, maybe it fits best at the part where kawajiri is making nikaido do the devil exam in his house or whatever...idk....

Dorohedoro - Igorrr: ALRIGHT BACK TO YAPPING. this song is so fucking good, dare i say its my favorite of the whole ost. and im not the only one, everyone seems to love this one. its literally just TIC TOC predecessor but even better. the classical music and opera singing inserted into this absolute chaos is insane and i cant think of a song that fits shin more honestly. like this is literally shin theme. it perfectly mixes his calm and rational self with the deranged outbursts he has. ive heard people say shin is a boring character and i genuinely cant wrap my head around it like HELLO...not only is his design just cool as fuck, but he has such interesting personality? my boy went through absolute hell and grew up from an aggressive and snarky kid to a calm and if i may say, empathetic guy. like he cares about the people around him, he was carrying three guys (one with his fucking mouth mind you) that passed out because of the rain flooding the underground basement. he refuses to kill people who are weak with magic, and generally doesnt really like going on killing sprees unless its a life or death situation (which since kid has made him go crazy, i like to think its probably cuz it increases his heartbeat and being a human+sorcerer maybe doubles the adrenaline this way). also the way he has inhumanely high pain tolerance, he can have his guts splattered on the ground and still manage to walk, to the point it even weirds EN out. like you gotta be some freak to get en concerned for you (or be kikurage lol). sorry this turned into a shin rant more than the song itself, i just cant believe so many people dont see how cool shin is. like hes not even my most favorite character but i will protect all the drhdr characters i like (which is most of them). anyway moving on

The Hole - Ghengis: alot of ppl say they think of hole (the place) when they listen to this song, but me personally?this song screams hole the entity, and artificial devil kai. like this song FEELS like its oozing with the sludge and that feeling every sorcerer that gets in contact with hole "magic" feels. i like to think the headaches they get is equivalent to the beat of the song LOLL. like just super loud and painful pulsing headache that can leave you paralyzed on the ground. anyway, i dont have that much to say, i just want this song to play at the central department store arc, OR. when artificial devil kai is first shown thas all

Don't Think, Just Kill - Roly Porter: i lied again this is the one i have least to say about. sorry. literally my only thoughts are that one of the songs playing during the living dead day episode is inspired by it but i frogor which one

Kaimans Head - Dead Fader: to compensate the fact i mightve lied once again im gonna ramble about something mildly related. so the one youtube upload i found of this song uses this one fucking risu fanart that legit makes me shit my pants. its honest to god the scariest freaking fanart ive seen of a character i like. its not like Shiver me timbers scary, its just so unsettling to me, like WHO COOKED THIS UP. WHO DREW THIS. i know hayashida would love it. she wishes she made risu this scary and not the catboy babygirl beautiful princess with a disorder she created (/J). anyway uh, this song goes pretty hard, i like it, i just dont have much to way besides that i like the beat maybe. also heres link to the youtube upload with the picture if u wanna know what im talkin abt

Radio 538 - Dow Jones Brotherhood: because the first time i listened to the songs was on youtube, i found this song pretty much last and uh. i dunno its cool! for some reason it reminds me of the cross eyes? ive no clue why it just does. it reminds me specifically of how all of them are basically just worshipping some guy half (if not most) of them havent even seen the face of. i like how the whole thing is basically just a cult. people built statues of the boss, tattooed his face on their hands so they never forget it, And the elites...oh those poor little guys. closest to the boss and got psychologically tortured with killing thousands of sorcerers daily and left to deal with the incomprehensible shit their boss does, while slowly building suspicion and disgust towards him, but unable to do anything because of how far theyve gone into this. like can you imagine how miserable dokuga and tetsujo must feel knowing their devotion to kai led to all their friends killed. id just die bro this is so fucked... anyway, kewl song👍 i love the cross eye elites

Stay down zombies! - Ed Cox: i honestly love how lowkey dramatic this one is. ALSO the accordion tune from el corazon is im pretty sure taken from this one! which makes two shin references yippee!!! i like how this one kinda mixes calm music with breakcore (do not erm akshually me on this one i dont care), just like how igorrr does. i dunno its just a cool song, though PERSONALLY i dont think it fits living dead day, it reminds me more of that scene where shin remembers his mothers death, and then slowly turns into a zombie. it gives off that vibe giving how the song progresses from dramatic and a bit somber, while the beat starts creeping in, accompanied by the accordion that i literally will never not associate w shin in general

ANYWAY WOW THATS ALL!!!! if even one person bothered to read all this, thank you. i love yapping about dorohedoro i love silly manga about a bunch of freaks and freak stuff and i am obsessed with hayashidas taste in music, knowing she picked all those artists cuz she likes their music makes absolute sense considering the kind of art she makes. i love you q hayashida im your biggest fan. also if you notice any grammatical errors pls remember english is not only my second language, but i also barely slept last night so that's my excuse

[molkolsdal]

Chama market in Khost, Afghanistan, 2021.

Anadolu

[jkflesh]

CARTHAGE — Duskdawn

Mastered by Justin K Broadrick GT069 AREC079 out March 7th Digital release & ltd edition maxi-style CD

"The full-length is a bursting tapestry of songs written and recorded during late night sessions, into the very early hours. “Duskdawn” filters inspiration from road films, journals, snatches of conversation misheard, and places partly forgotten through a sleep-deprived, medicated mist: part of the recording was interrupted by an accident and a hospital stay, which altered the entire writing process. Subdued and intricately-layered vocals collide with shoegaze style guitar, metal shards, gorgeous piano lines, and abstract electronics. Downtempo driving and distant rhythms are interrupted by jarring transitions, like flipping stations on a radio dial. The result is a dreamlike expedition in which fans of shoegaze, post-hardcore, synth, noise rock, and post-punk will find comfort in. The enigmatic Daniela VK — also featured on TACTICAL PAGAN's latest effort — notably contributes vocals throughout. The album was mastered by Justin K Broadrick. “Many of the tracks were written late at night, and into the early hours — a process which inspired the title — and over time became a depiction of an alternative reality which was occuring.” – CARTHAGE

[captain-price-unofficially]

Khost Protection Force Commando. CIA-Afghan Paramilitary, consisted of about 3,500 CIA-trained members. Their job was to neutralize Jihadi-Madrasah Camps in eastern Afghanistan and prevent militants from entering via the Pakistani border.

[bullet-prooflove]

StolenMoments!Series Part Four: Last Words - Vostanik Sabatino x Reader

Tagging: @kmc1989 @novamariestark @words-and-seeds

You’ve been in a relationship with Sabatino for three months when you are captured by insurgents outside of a village near Khost. It’s a flurry of stolen moments, nights spent tangled up in each other whilst Granger’s off base, secret smiles when you run into each other, small gestures meant to make each other’s lives easier. It’s the happiest that Sabatino has been in a long time.

Your intelligence network has been running for over two months when it happens. There’s a steady stream of information flowing through all the appropriate channels and the intel, it’s good. The task force has managed to track down several terrorist cells, striking a hard blow to Taliban efforts in the immediate area. Sabatino thinks that’s the reason they came after you, they want the names of your assets. You would rather die than give up that information. It’s Sabatino’s worst nightmare, because he remembers what they did to Sanders, he knows they’ll do worse to you.

They have half a day on Sabatino by the time he finds out that you’re missing. He’s spent a week out in the mountains, searching the caves for a guy they believe is hiding out there when he calls to check in with Granger. When he gets the news, it feels like his heart stops in his chest, the oxygen rushes out of his lungs and for a minute he can’t breathe.

“You need to come back in.” Granger tells him as he holds onto the sat phone so tightly, he hears the plastic creak.

“No.” Sabatino tells Granger, his voice rough with emotion. “I’m close to the location she was taken. I can catch up with them.”

“You’ve been out there over a week. Come back in, refuel. That’s an order.” Granger barks and Sabatino, he doesn’t give a shit because as far as he’s concerned Granger’s not his boss, he has no authority over him. Even if he was, that wouldn’t stop him.

“And lose more time? I don’t think so.” He hangs up on Granger before tucking the sat phone back into his pocket. He does a mental inventory of his supplies, considers the items he has on him, what he can harvest from the land. It gets sparse when it comes to higher up in the mountains, but he’ll handle that when he gets to it.

He manages to track the group into the Kush, submitting coordinates as often as he can to Granger. Each time the other man tries to order him back and each time he refuses. By now your team are already on route and Sabatino is trying to give them the best chance he can of catching up because from what he can see of the convoy, he’s going to need the manpower.

They’re moving fast towards the Pakistan border and if he has any hope of stopping them, he’s going to need back up because if they get you over there, you’re as good as dead.

Things turn to shit when he ends up in a skirmish with a small splinter group. He takes a bullet, it’s a through and through, transecting the muscle in his left bicep. It hurts like a fucker but it’s nothing more than a flesh wound. The problem is it won’t stop bleeding and he has nothing to stem it with. He leaves a trail of blood and three dead bodies in his wake.

It’s not long after that that your team catches up with him, the only weapon he has on him is a combat knife, he almost takes out Callen when he sneaks up on him in the brush.

“Did you see her?” Sam asks him as he bandages the wound in Sabatino’s left arm.

“Yea.” He says, closing his eyes for a brief moment. He’d caught a glimpse of you through his binoculars when he was up on the ridge. Your hands were bound in front of you, your face bloodied, smeared with dirt and marred with bruising. The beating has gone further than just your face, he could tell from the stiffness as you moved. The look in your eyes, it’s furious and fierce. You still have that fire in you despite the fact you know exactly what awaits you. “She’s still fighting.”

When they find the convoy, they’re presented with a problem. Their group is outgunned, outmanned and extremely low on resources. The Taliban outnumber them seven to one and Sabatino is wounded. Their only saving grace is when Deek’s comes through with another option. He has a prisoner they might be interested in, the father of the man that leads the group.

An exchange is negotiated.

You for the father.

When the helicopter lands with their hostage, Granger tries to shove him onto it so he can receive medical treatment.

“Sit this one out, you’re injured.”

“You know what she means to me.” Sabatino snarls at the other man, jabbing his finger towards the group. He knows all of those late-night trysts haven’t gone unnoticed, that the Acting Director understands it’s a lot more than just two agents blowing off steam. “Let me do the walk, instead of risking one of your assets.”

He makes a good point. Sabatino is expendable at least in the eyes of NCIS. If he dies here today, there’s no one to mourn him, they don’t even have to bring his body back. The CIA will claim he never existed.

It’s Sabatino that walks their prisoner into the centre of the clearing. He keeps his face impassive, his gaze fixed on you as they march forward. It’s worse than he thought, one of your eyes is bloodshot, your nose is broken. He can hear the wheeze in your chest, see the shortness of breath. He thinks they may have cracked a rib or two when they beat you. It breaks his fucking heart because he never wanted any of this for you.

When they shove you from behind, you stumble. He catches you in his arms, ignoring the pain that tears at his left bicep as he supports your weight. He wraps his good arm around your shoulders, clasping you close, tucking you into his side before he leads you towards the safety of the chopper.

It’s only as he turns his back that he hears the click of the pistol. This is the other reason it had to be him, he knows the Taliban can never let an asset like you go, not even for the father of their leader. The damage you’ve done already, it’s too great. The damage you will do if they let you go…

It would be catastrophic to their organisation.

He hauls you against him, shielding you from harm with his body as the gunshot explodes through the air, ringing in his ears. He feels the bullet searing through his flesh, the impact smashing into him.

It’s a blur after that, a haze of motion in the midst of the agony that rips through his chest. Every time he blinks the scene changes. The sky, the rotors of the helicopter, and then your face. His gaze locks on you, his hand trembling as he seeks out yours. You clasp it tightly and he smiles despite the fact he can taste copper on his tongue. He wants to tell you that it’s ok, that this was meant to happen. So long as you’re alive and safe it doesn’t matter.

He opens his mouth to speak but his brain can’t form the words in English, so he slips back into his mother’s tongue, the one he was raised on.

“Yes sirum yem k’ez,” he whispers in Armenian.

Your forehead comes to rest upon his, his fingertips ghosting along the line of your cheek as the darkness twinges at the edges of his vision. He tries to hold on, he really does but that exhaustion it overwhelms him, dragging him under.

“Yes sirum yem k’ez,” he repeats as he slips away. “Yes sirum yem k’ez,”

I love you, I love you, I love you.

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Lifting Shadows

by SpecialAgentAnnie “Boss lady… you good…” she asks at a loss of what to do. If Michelle was the worst at human emoting, then Evie was the second worst at it; this was something DeShawn or JD would be better equipped for. Words: 1337, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 2 of NCIS Sydney: Michelle's Struggle Fandoms: NCIS: Sydney Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Evie Cooper, Michelle Mackey Relationships: Evie Cooper & Michelle MacKay Additional Tags: Team as Family, Team Bonding, Hurt/Comfort, Gyms, Conversations, Truth, Mackey has PTSD, Mackey tells Evie about Khost, Evie Cooper is trying her best, Michelle isn't good at emotions, neither is Evie, Michelle and Evie are gym buddies, Evie tries to help Michelle via https://ift.tt/d3k4cKB

[ncisfranchise-source]

NCIS: Sydney wrapped the first half of its freshman season by shedding light on Special Agent Michelle Mackey’s tragic past — yet in doing so left us with at least two burning questions.

In the course of investigating this week’s case, Mackey made no secret of the animus she felt toward a POI — Frank Doherty, a onetime petty officer who, decades ago, had abandoned his post.

Toward episode’s end, when Mackey and J.D. unsuccessfully leaned on Doherty to detail his role (or lack thereof) in the murder at hand, a frustrated J.D. bailed on the interrogation. Mackey, alone now with Doherty, shut off the interrogation room mic, as he asked if she, as a helicopter pilot, had ever killed someone, and looked in their eyes while doing it.

Mackey proceeded to detail how she, while a member of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, was stationed in Khost, Afghanistan, several Christmas Eves ago. When three young soldiers wandered off base and wound up on the wrong side of the border, Mackey disobeyed a direct order to stand down and instead grabbed a gunner and a corp man and took flight in a chopper.

The three soldiers were found and scooped up, but the chopper came under fire on the way back to the border. Heavy with fuels and the extra bodies, Mackey’s bird was none too nimble so she could only bring it in for a hard landing a few miles from base.

“The three guys went home to face the music,” she related. “My two went home in body bags.”

Question No. 1, coming out of this sobering share: Why did Mackey mute the mic, leaving J.D. and Evie oblivious to her tragic past?

“She’s a woman who has built a career on being strong and having an armor, and leading with that strength,” NCIS: Sydney star Olivia Swann told TVLine. “I think that, in her mind, showing any sign of vulnerability to her team would change their view of her. She doesn’t think would be helpful for her role as a leader.

“She’s protecting herself but also protecting her team,” Swann continued, “because when you’re out in the field, when someone knows a weakness it shifts their behavior.”

Also, “No matter how close I think we’ve seen [the merged NCIS/AFP team members] start to become, she’s a very guarded person and, I think, finds it difficult to trust people,” says the English actress.

Yet while we now know what defied order led to Mackey facing a court martial, as DeShawn told Evie in the series premiere, Mackey was eventually found not guilty. Question No. 2 is thus: How could that be?

Swann — who told TVLine “we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface” of what she has been told about Mackey’s backstory — affirmed that the question surrounding the court martial outcome is indeed “very interesting, and I can’t wait for whatever episode it is that that comes out, where we find out the whole story.”