I feel like I've been waiting for the new Perturbator album forever, and now we finally have the first single. I don't love the video, but the track is cool. As usual, though, I'll be holding out for the full album to hear it again. Need that context.
Watch:
Here's a new Irish Folk Horror flick I do not remember hearing about before this past weekend when it popped up on Shudder. You know I love me some Irish Folk Horror; this is well-timed, as Lorcan Finnegan has a new film out and in buying tickets for that tomorrow night, I've already got a hankering to rewatch Without Name, which is possibly my favorite of the Irish Folk Horror genre.
This is Writer/Director Aislinn Clarke's second feature-length film. Their first, The Devil's Doorway, is on a list I have somewhere and is currently streaming on AMC+ (But not their Horror subsidiary Shudder, fuckyouverymuch AMC+), so I'm adding both of these films to my watch list with hopes to have a nice, spooky double or triple feature soon.
I rewatched In A Violent Nature last night, strictly because Joe Bob and Darcy hosted it on the previous installment of The Last Drive-In. Not a fan of this flick, but I did come away with this song, so that's cool.
The album this track is featured on shares its name, and while I didn't love it, I found a pretty reliable evocation of a certain kind of Electro-Indie-Pop that was ubiquitous in Los Angeles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and thus, hits a certain nostalgic trigger for me. I'm not talking smack; I would have probably liked this a lot more back then, but my tastes have definitely shifted, and as it stands after a couple of listens, I do dig this, just not enough to really get excited by it. Still, if you dig this track, check out their music for yourself.
Watch:
Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian received a trailer last week:
This is another example of a creator who must have a hand in controlling the marketing of his films because, like Barbarian, this gives nothing away. I'm not going to test that theory by watching any subsequent trailers New Line releases after this; Weapons hits theatres on August 8th, and I will be there on opening day.
Read:
Over the weekend, I ripped through a re-read of Preston Fassel's brilliant Our Lady of the Inferno. Second time reading this book, and it's an all-time favorite for me.
The depth of emotion here is incredible. This is a book that can scare you, gross you out, and touch your heart. The imagery is above and beyond as Fassel conjures 42nd Street, New York, in 1983, in a way I cannot even begin to describe. You hear it, you feel it, you smell it. The characters are so well-written and so developed that you feel like you know them - like you have known them your entire life. And the Horror is both breathtaking and heartbreaking in equal measure.
I was lucky enough to grab this one upon original publication by Fangoria, but while that edition is long out of print, there is a new edition available everywhere books are sold.
I know I say this a lot, and I always mean it when I say it, but I cannot recommend this book enough. While I would definitely classify Our Lady of the Inferno as a "Horror" novel, it is also a literary Horror novel and one that is far too human to be limited by any genre tropes.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
The Raveonettes - PE'AHI II
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Primus - Pork Soda
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Ghost - Skeletá
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Final Light - Eponymous
Techno Westerns - Lover Boy
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• Four of Wands
• Seven of Pentacles
Emotional breakthrough leads to a stable foundation from which to move forward to victory.
Black Gloves & Broken Hearts is finished and is in the hands of my trusted Beta Reader, so I'm really just waiting on the cover art and any cleanup based on early readers' reactions. After that, we'll be looking at setting a release date. Conversely, I've added a chapter to my latest ongoing Nosleep Serial and moved back to Shadow Play Book Two with the intention of stripping it, streamlining it, and finishing it. I toyed with the idea of turning this proposed trilogy into a duology. However, I think I will simply make books two and three shorter than originally expected. There's just too much sprawl, and I think it's that admitting and acknowledging that right there that is the "Emotional Breakthrough" mentioned in the reading. Roping this in can only lead to a stronger foundation and, thus, completion (Victory).
You know what Jack Burton says at a time like this? Rock on, baby!
I've been listening to John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China score, which means I'm creeping up on a rewatch sometime soon. It's been a minute.
Watch:
Holy F**K, Predator: Badlands, I. AM. INNNNN!
And yet, I feel as though I must offer a word of seasoned warning. This is Fox, so this is Disney. I love that Ell Fanning is playing a Weiland-Yutani synth, thus bringing the two franchises together again in a less on-the-nose way, but I also remember how excited I was for the Marvel MCU and the first Star Wars movie back. Both of those have been run into the ground, so let's hope lessons have been learned and that won't happen to Alien/Predator.
But are lessons ever truly learned in the strip-mining megastructure called Hollywood?
Trachtenberg's return is a calming boon - Prey is outstanding, and this looks to be a little of that, plus the "Hostile Alien World" of Predators. So I will be there opening day.
Posting, but not listening. New albums Skeletá is out this Friday, 4/25, and although Loma Vista hasn't shipped my vinyl yet - I'm not sure what they are waiting for - I'm holding out until I can at least listen to the entire record on Apple.
NCBD:
Fantastic pull list this week! Very excited to hit the shop tonight. Here's what I'll be reading later today:
Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana returns, just in time to line up with my Gideon Falls re-read, so I am very much into more Lemire. Plus, this book has been very cool. Atmospheric the way Lemire does so well.
Still one of the strangest books I've read in quite some time, Into the Unbeing continues to confound and delight me. Macrocosmic Body Horror.
Even though I've cooled on Skybound's iteration of Joe, I'm still looking forward to seeing the confrontation promised by this cover.
Two left after this one. Damn, I'm going to miss this book.
Dust to Dust has really turned out as a sleeper. I don't hear much about other folks reading this book, but I know they're out there.
Watch:
I haven't had a chance to say it here yet, but Ryan Coogler's Sinners is an exceptional film, and a breath of fresh air in what started out a strong year for Horror with Presence, Grafted, The Dead Thing and The Monkey, but quickly became stale.
Sinners shares some structural DNA with Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn in that it both films are actually two movies glued together in the middle with blood. What I love about this is that is the world, right? There's the everyday world where you're robbing a bank or driving around, collecting down-on-their-luck musicians to play at your new Juke Joint, and there's the world where something unnatural arrives and takes you into the netherworld.
With Sinners, the detail is fantastic. You can feel 1930's Southern heat, the sticky humidity, and the life to which these characters live to their fullest, even when they die. Very cool film that I recommend everyone up for a field trip take in on the big screen. The soundtrack through the theatre speakers alone is worth the trip.
Playlist:
Dreamkid - Daggers
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk)
Windhand - Eternal Return
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Card:
Back to the Thoth deck today for a quick, one-card pull:
From the Grimoire, "How true are you to your inner aspirations and will?"
From their 1995 Masterpiece, A Northern Soul. K and I listened to this out under the stars Saturday night and it proved balm for the weary soul. Been too long; I need to work this one back into the rotation for a while.
Watch:
Noah Hawley's ALIEN EARTH gets a trailer!
Still no exact release date for this one yet, just a reiteration of "Summer 2025." I have a feeling I'll be avoiding this until then, but I had to watch it once.
Read:
My good friend and co-host from The Horror Vision, Anthony (also known as Butcher), recently started reading Jeff Lemire and Andrea Torentino's Gideon Falls, and this has provided the perfect excuse for me to launch my own re-read.
This will be the first time I've read this since it was monthly, so it will be a much more revealing experience. I've forgotten a lot, but not enough to have lost the reverence for this series I hold.
Can't wait to really get into it for discussion's sake, as there will be a Hororr Vision down the road where Anthony and I deep-dive this.
Playlist:
Baroness - Blue Record
OLD - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak
Blood Incantation - Absolute Everywhere
Dreamkid - Daggers
Oranssi Pazuzu - Live At Roadburn 2017
Tad - Inhaler
Nirvana - Bleach
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Starting the day off with some old school Baroness. Thanks for the prompt, Mr. Brown!
Was super excited to find live footage of this one with Gina. Thanks to Feet First Productions for posting this. I'd urge everyone to check out their channel HERE. Tons of great live footage.
Watch:
In a bizarre turn of events, I'm off today for "Good Friday." Ah, okay? Not complaining - I'll take the day and recharge. Currently sitting outside with the cats, but I'm going to head inside in a little bit, get baked and watch a few movies to charge up for what I hope will be an epic editing session later today. Black Gloves & Broken Hearts will be finished this weekend, so I can send it to my favorite beta reader!
First up:
After that, not sure where I'll go. But wherever I do, I'm certain it will be a place both wonderful and strange!
Play:
I've seen the trailer for David Sandberg's upcoming adaptation of the game Until Dawn a few times now, and although I'll need to see it for The Horror Vision, I'm just not looking forward to it. Then I had the idea that, maybe if I played the game, it might help.
Understand that, while I bought a Switch a few years back, it's the first gaming system I've owned since the original Nintendo, so I've missed nearly 40 years of gaming history.
The problem here is that Until Dawn is a PlayStation game. I looked into buying a used one, because there are a handful of other games I might like to play on the system. After briefly watching snippets of a play-through video, I was reminded of how much I dislike the Uncanny Valley look of many of these kinds of games. It's just not for me; I'm a Metroidvania/2D survival Horror kind of guy, and I really don't want to buy another video game system at this time. So I nixed the entire idea, but this got me thinking: What other Horror games are available for Switch?
I started HERE and now I'm second guessing my Uncanny Valley prejudice, because I'm not sure I can pass this up:
Maybe my aversion to this graphic style will abait after more exposure? Whataever the case, this is currently $7.99 on the Nintendo online store, and I'm thinking about grabbing it.
Holy cow - new music from Stereolab!!! From the forthcoming album Instant Holograms on Metal Film, out May 23rd on Duophonic UHF Disks and Warp Records . Pre-order HERE.
Watch:
A full trailer for Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 28 Years Later dropped while I slept, and just seeing the thumbnail, I'm excited. I'm not going to actually watch this trailer, mind you. But just knowing we're that much closer to this brings me joy.
My fear is this will play before every movie I go to the theatre to see until the film's release on June 20th.
Playlist:
OLD - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Primus - Pork Soda
Killing Joke - Eponymous
Stereolab - Aerial Troubles (single)
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Tad - Inhaler
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XI: Justice
• Knight of Cups
• Nine of Swords
Balance creativity or sleeplessness could result.
I actually think this is telling me this so I do the opposite - I've wanted to work on some projects at night the last two weeks, but I'm finding it impossible to stay awake later than 11:00 PM most nights. I think I need to generate a fervor to inspire some 'sleeplessness.' Or at least, some sleep-delay.
