Art, Hobbies, Riffs, Gaming and More - for your mental health.

As if one gig review stacked with enough quality snaps from Atheist’s performance on Sun 8th June was enough. Nor some great shots of supports Anoxia, Vexation and Alarum. Hell no, man. Not when we’ve got talented band/crowd-snapper Jason Vidic of Vidic Images on the case! See within for additional crisp snaps from a truly chaotic, mind-bending evening. Plus artist links and more!
Read the tale of a campaign set in the world of Élodie’s work-in-progress RPG inspired by the Great War and her own nightmares! Part one includes dramatic recaps of the first two sessions and some behind-the-curtain notes.
How many words/which words can be used to describe a night of musical perfection? A night 35+ years in the making, featuring one of the most important and influential bands in extreme metal via Atheist? Supported by Australian death-metal legends Alarum, Vexation and Anoxia?! No idea, but for the best-guess attempt & some stellar images by Jason Vidic (of Vidic Images), check out our gig review.
Well then! This was meant to be a Tabletop Thursdays update, however my body clock saw it fit to sleep until late evening. Thus, on that note, today’s Dicey News update is a nocturnal-friendly affair. We explore titles from the itch.io Bundle For Ukranian Hospitals, and provide a number of great new/upcoming tabletop/hobby releases. Don’t sleep on these like I slept yesterday!
Imagine this - you’re piloting a super high-speed biomechanical exosuit fighting hordes of interdimensional adversaries. Hmm, what to listen to, I wonder? Check out three great technical/progressive death metal releases from 2025 that we think will go down a treat for any ADHD-coded exoskeleton!
It’s been an absolutely bonkers month here at Inner-Strength Check - lots and lots of content! I’ve herded all said content-cats together in one handy compendium-post: gig reviews, album reviews, interviews, podcast episodes, news, covers, music/gaming/tabletop-related content, photo galleries and more!
No flak or anti-air needed here. This is a most welcome raid upon our cochleas! First of a few May release-roundups we’ll be doing features a Swedish psych-doom delve (Cavern Deep), a Milwaukee (US) man’s Liminal Spirit, a tango with Belgique sludge-monsters (Growing Horns), chopping frenzied Californian tech-death (Ominous Ruin) and ensuring not to pass the black metal post in Romania (Genune)! Open those hatches, bombs away.
I was NOT expecting many, many things when I took on a regional show from destroyalllines to write up Alpha Wolf’s blitzkrieg-tour of Australia alongside beloved UK ‘core-titans Malevolence. Supported by no less than two knockouts in Zuko and Melting. A gig so fun, frenetic, manic, loveable and earnest that I went pretty damn hard in that direction, too.
Break out the eyeliner, ill-fitting jeans and stretch up for the mosh - Atreyu are headed back to Australia in July for a jam-packed tour alongside fellow metalcore giants Memphis May Fire! I spoke with Brandon Saller around all things Atreyu this morning - the upcoming tour/recent shows, thoughts and reflections on both band and The Curse around the 20th-anniversary LP tour, and much more! Peep the link for podcast interview plus all the tour info you’ll need. Best get in quick, though!
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Kicking off Music Mondays in style, we were joined this morning by none other than Eric Peterson, longstanding member and guitarist of thrash-metal titans Testament! With the Australian tour kicking off in just a couple of weeks, we discussed Eric’s thoughts on heading to our sunburnt land again, plus a whole lot more. Ticket links and other tour info also contained within. Thrash on!