Multitasking used to be the magic word for successful living, but now I hear more about mindfulness. Maybe everybody got exhausted from multitasking and needed a way to stop flying apart at the seams all the time. But what is mindfulness and how do you practice it? Here are three slim volumes to help you get started.

1. Mindfulness on the Go: Inner Peace in Your Pocket by Padraig O’Morain (Harlequin Nonfiction, 2014)

The girl behind the counter said no. She would not buy these albums. They were CDs I’d pulled out of heavy metal bargain bins, listened to once, promptly forgotten, and was now trying to sell at Book Off, a used media chain store. I took this rejection as a sign that I should give these albums another try, so I thanked the girl kindly and took them home for another listen. Now I’m better acquainted with them, for better or worse.

1. Throneum’s Mutiny of Death (Pagan Records, 2004)

I should have known this was a keeper from the cover…

The battle between the United States Army and Modoc Tribe raged across the lava beds, leaving behind the flotsam and jetsam of war. Moaning horses lay in troughs of churned earth. Dead hands gripped fallen standards. Bodies lay in a litter of spilled cartridges, bayonet shards, fragments of clothing, and bits of photographs and letters from home. And onto this field stepped three gunmen in black.

Bo “Bronco” Riley hit the dirt. The hell’d they come from? he thought as he wriggled behind the body of a dead horse and peeked around for another look.

All three of the figures…

From his cover in the darkness, Bishop Diclux watched the witches cavort in the light of their bone-fire. Breasts shook and trembled. Sweat flew from tossed hair. Mouths ejected grunts and spewed wild ululations. Within the flames, a massive form hunkered, turning its shaggy, horned head from side to side in slow, baleful arcs. Diclux, Christian priest in public and diabolical warlock in secret, wrapped a hand around the hilt of his sword.

This was going to be a hunt to remember.

Diclux’s companions this night were his Hammer, eight warriors chosen from his enclave for their loyalty, cunning and…

Transformers, My Little Pony . . . Sectaurs, anyone? Toys often become comics, even good comics, but it isn’t often they become great comics, much less represent the best the medium has to offer. And yet the Micronauts did just that. At its pinnacle, the comics were an imaginative and intense exploration of life, death and all the changes in between.

Toys Before Fiction

The Micronauts began as toys. In 1974, Takara in Japan began producing the Microman line featuring smaller versions of its Henshin Cyborg toys. The central conceit was that the action figures, which were roughly three to five inches tall…

My Top 10 Heavy Metal Albums of 2020 simply didn’t do justice to how alive the scene was in 2020, so I’m back to satisfy my demons with a list of the best EPs and singles I ran across this year. You may choose to overlook shorter releases in favor of full-length albums, but you do so at the peril of your metal soul:

1. Mourning Beloveth / The Ruins of Beverast, Please Don’t Walk on the Mass Graves (Ván Records)

It was the weirdest of times, it was the weirdest of times, and holy hell was 2020 weird. Some would say it was simply bad, but look on the bright side: At least the soundtrack was good. Read on for my top heavy metal picks of the year.

1. Myrkur, Folkesange (Relapse Records)

Start complaining about my list now, because my Album of the Year is one of those albums that isn’t technically metal. There aren’t any growls, thunderous drums or wailing guitar solos. This is the type of metal that’s metal in spirit, like something from Dark Sanctuary’s discography…

One of rock’s obsessions since April 10, 1970 has been identifying the “next” Beatles. The music industry has heralded Badfinger, Oasis and others as the second coming, but these bands never reached the same heights in musicianship or cultural impact. One band to arrive on the scene in the seventies, however, was so impressive that people thought it was actually the Beatles come back under a pseudonym. That band was Klaatu. And yes, it was that good.

Klaatu Lands

Klaatu was from Canada — not Liverpool. John Woloschuk and Dee Long founded the band in 1973 and were soon joined by percussionist…