Metal Inside(r) Home Quarantine is Metal Insider’s new column during this time of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked artists five questions on what’s been keeping them busy ranging from their favorite movies, food they’ve been eating, music they’ve been listening to and more. We caught up with In The Company of Serpents vocalist/guitarist Grant Netzorg as he’s been spending this time working on new music.
What have you been doing to pass time during Quarantine?
I’ve been trying to capitalize on the isolation by reading through the mountains of books I’ve been meaning to get to, leaning into my spiritual/ritual practices, & trying to write new music. So far I’ve got the bones of 3 new songs, and the general concept for what will become our next record, so it ain’t all bad.
Have you been listening to any music or have any playlists worth checking out?
Given the severity of the broader cultural moment we’re in, I have not been listening to too much super heavy/dark shit, but have been jamming a lot of laid back stuff like True Widow & Dead Meadow, as well as a lot of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, & Leonard Cohen. In particular, The Bad Seeds acoustic version of City of Refuge from his B-sides and Rarities record has seemed very fitting for our apocalyptic moment. As far as new stuff is concerned, our friend Ethan McCarthy (Primitive Man, Vermin Womb, CTTTOAFF etc.) has a new record coming out under his noise/ambient project Many Blessings, and what I’ve heard of that so far has been rad. Additionally, our bandmate, JP Damron (also of Vermin Womb and CTTTOAFF), has a forthcoming record from his new band, Bleakheart, that is going to turn a lot of heads. He shared an advance copy with me, and it is some goosebumps-inducing, haunting stuff. Anyone with a taste for gothy, ethereal shoegaze will be into it. JP tells me that should be officially out sometime mid-summer.
A lot of people have been spending this time cooking including making their own bread, what food have you been prepping during this time?
My other half is the baker of the house, and she has been crushing the artisan breads. She made a loaf of french bread with some rosemary from our garden recently that was out of this world. I have gotten interested in herbalism in the last few years, so I’ve been busy preparing and maintaining our medicinal and culinary herb gardens, and making various herbal tinctures. I also am a spice fiend, and have starter plants going for about 40 different pepper plants under our indoor grow lights, and am really looking forward to getting our vegetable garden going for the summer.
In terms of entertainment, what movies, TV shows, books, or games have been keeping you busy?
The best book I read recently was Ingo Swann’s Psychic Literacy: & the Coming Psychic Renaissance. Swann was a pioneer of remote viewing (arguably some of the most important magickal tech of the last century), and this book breaks down the history of accurate prophecy & soothsaying, while dispelling some of the criticisms material science has dogmatically levied at these phenomena. Highly recommended for the hardened skeptics & initiated weirdos alike!
What advice do you have for your fans in isolation during this time?
Stay safe, and don’t be cavalier with your health or that of those around you. With that being said, do not give into the fear and anxiety that is so pervasive right now either. We are witnessing the labor pains of the world being born completely anew, and we have a golden opportunity to make it the utopia we all desperately crave. Alternatively, it can just as easily become the dystopia we fear. Lets lean into the former.
In The Company of Serpents’ new album Lux is now available.
