Ian Cory

Introducing "The Lonely Atom", my newest album. Say hello, everyone! The album drops on 3/29 via @furioushooves & @peopleplacesrecords but you can pre-order it RIGHT NOW. Here's the short version of the bio that @catcostajones wrote for the record: 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞 "The Lonely Atom is the second studio album from the Brooklyn-based heavy alternative rock project Lamniformes. It is a concept album about the isolation of modern life, the fractured projections of the self that exist outside of us in digitally mediated spaces, and the struggle for real connection in an increasingly atomized world." 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞 I am confident that this is the best collection of songs that I've ever worked on and I can't wait to share them with you. Making this album during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns no joke nearly killed me. I think when you hear the final result you'll agree it was worth it. 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞 Photo by @richardginorg Art by @_unprdctv 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞 🪞🪞⚛️🪞🪞

I produced, recorded, edited, and scored a new video essay with my friend @_lamniformes_ , and it’s out now! Link in bio. As an avid enjoyer of the video essay genre, I’ve always wanted to dip my toes into the medium. So last year, when my smart friend Ian wrote a series of articles on his Substack about “Progmatism” (a novel critical mode and aesthetic paradigm inspired equally by prog rock and pragmatic epistemology), I pitched him on transposing his writing to the world of video. Several months later, you can finally see it! It was an incredibly fun learning process, and I got to do things like: punch up an educational script with an array of visual gags, write and perform several pastiches of prog rock across the ages (including some VERY goofy whole-tone synth solos), learn how to treat a sunburn (using only color correction), download every royalty-free image of the band Dream Theater, make silly Bill Wurtz-style voiceover harmonizations, and recreate the Dark Souls death sound from scratch. Obviously, the brilliant things Ian says about art and authenticity are the main draw here, but I hope you’re also able to enjoy the jokes I get to make about how the word “prog” sounds like the word “Prague”.

Big Announcement: I made a YouTube video. A long one at that. For the first ever edition of Lamniformes Hi-Fi, I adapted my newsletter on how PROG can save us from the rockism vs poptimism debate into a 30 minute long video essay. I say "I" but a lion's share of the credit goes to my good buddy Zack Berinstein who shot/produced/edited this beast, and also encouraged me to take this message to the masses. You can watch the full video on YouTube (link where you'd expect!) let me know what you think!!

Rehearsing with the boys. I was going to post a short clip but heck, I like the whole song so here it is. Stick around to hear Aaron scream louder than the whole band despite not having a microphone.

For old time’s sake… 🪞⚛️🪞 New Lamniformes in the works on two fronts. A nearly finished EP, and a killer live band readying itself for a return to the stage. Two other EPs and one extra hefty full length all at different stages of drafting. Some ancillary projects cooking on the side too. All very exciting. As is the rare sight of a street mirror in Chicago.

Metallica’s 24 shows at the Sphere were announced and sold out just as fast. Which makes this the right moment to look past the staples and into the corners of the catalog that barely see daylight — songs shelved for years, songs that slipped into a setlist once or twice and disappeared. A room full of absolute diehards gives Metallica permission to do anything. No one in that audience needs to hear “Enter Sandman” to feel satisfied. These are the 10 we want to hear them pull back out — unlikely, overdue, and built for a stage that size.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ✍️ @_lamniformes_ 📸 Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

wow it is crazy that we are for real getting married this summer pictures by @alexmaldonadophotography

you know I had to do it to em(ily) Scotland with @emilymroth

Drumming Upstream is BACK!!! Here's a clip from my cover of "III. Universe" by The Microphones, filmed way back in uh... 2023? This song presented some interesting challenges, like condensing multi-tracked drums into a single kit. Luckily my time drumming for Bellows prepared for me this kind of reduction/translation. I wrote about learning this song, as well as confronting my own artistic jealousy of the album Mount Eerie and subsequent humbled appreciation for it on my newsletter.

Here's a clip from my drum cover of "Moment of Truth" by Gang Starr, produced by the legendary DJ Premier. Primo has had as big an influence on my playing as any kit drummer, and this beat is one of my favorite of his. I wrote about this tune, dad rap as a concept, and why boom bap will always be the sound of NYC to me on my newsletter, you know where to go!

Here's a clip from my cover of "Adam Raised A Cain" by Bruce Springsteen, the latest in my on-going mission to learn every song I've ever Liked on Spotify on drums. This might be the "heaviest" tune from the Springsteen catalog, and it's a great excuse to examine the over-employed and under-considered term "dad rock". What happens when the daddy of all dad rock turns against dads themselves? That and more in the latest entry of DRUMMING UPSTREAM.

Here's a clip from my cover of "Cometh Down Hessian" by @highonfireband as originally performed by @deskensel Whew, this one took a long time to learn, in part because I mis-heard all of the tom/foot grooves as being all double bass, so I spent an entire year getting my feet up to speed only to re-learn the whole tune with one foot. Oops! I had an absolute blast shedding all of these rad fills, though! I wrote about learning this tune, and why High on Fire are the quintessential band of the American heavy metal underground for my newsletter. #metaldrumming #heavymetaldrummer #doommetal #thrashmetal