Fear John Cale!

This past Monday morning, a text from a good friend put John Cale's 1974 album Fear back on my radar, and I have to say, I'm not sure how I've gone so long since last listening to this. This ended up setting up a whole "70s NY" day on the stereo. I needed it!

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NCBD:

Big Pull. Let's go:

Dreadnok War Part 2! Already! I either didn't realize or forgot this book was going bi-weekly for the duration of this event. An event which, might I add, is off to a really good start. As Mike Shin and I talked about on a recent Drinking with Comics, Issue 13 was easily the best issue of the Energon Universe's G.I.JOE title to date. Hope they keep it up!

This one started strong but really suffered during the middle, so I'm hoping the story will come back around again at the end. I love the art, but it limits how the story is unfurled. There is a lot of "You're telling me everything, but I want you to SHOW ME!"

I find the unrelenting pace of Larazus: Fallen almost intimidating at this point! Hahaha. Seriously, I'm spending November reading the three Criminal Deluxe Editions, but I may make Lazarus my re-read project in December or January. Can't wait to catch up!

The first issue of this was fantastic, so I'm excited to see where it goes. I believe I read this won't be an issue-to-issue series, but rather it will jump around and chronicle High Strangeness across the 20th-century American landscape.

The Laphams have me hooked on their small-town, Southwestern Crime story. 

One of the VIP titles of 2025, Michael Walsh, James Tynion and friends have crafted one helluva bloody good time with Exquisite Corpses. 

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Watch:

Not much in the way of movie news lately, or at least nothing I care about. Here's a trailer for Edward G. Ulmer's 1945 Noir Detour.

I discovered this one last year for Noirvember and just had my second viewing the other night. A nice, tight little Noir with all the elements you've come to expect from the genre. Ulmer's not reinventing the wheel here, but that's not really what Noir is about. If we want that, we fast forward to Neo Noirs. Or how about, Sci Fi Neo Noirs?

I cracked Ridley Scott's Blade Runner out after watching Chinatown this past weekend. It just seemed like the perfect follow-up to Polanski's film. This film still feels fresh and beautiful. Only one problem, and I'm looking at Warner Bros home releasing as the guilty party. Ever heard of DVD rot? I have the Blade Runner Ultimate Edition 5 Disc collection, and when I went to fire up the disc with the US and UK Theatrical cuts, the Anti-Piracy statement came up, and then literally nothing else.

Okay, fine. I moved on to the version I usually watch, the Final Cut. I made it to Roy's arrival at JF Sebastian's place and the disc stopped. 

AHHHH!!! I looked this up online and found that there are apparently a lot of issues with DVD Rot Warner Bros. discs produced from 2006-2008. The Ultimate Edition came out in 2007, so this puts what was once a fairly expensive set squarely in the affected timeline.

Fucking Warner Bros! I LOVE the packaging on this one, so this hurts. Thinking I'm going to suss out any issues with the remaining discs, then try and find a Blu-ray copy and just transfer those discs into this package. That said, if the Blu-rays were also manufactured in 2007, well, am I just setting myself up for future failure? Why does this shit have to be so difficult!

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Playlist:

John Cale - Fear

Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

Roxy Music - Eponymous

Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Iggy Pop - The Idiot

Television - Marquee Moon

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Live 1977-1979

Mastodon - Crack the Skye

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

The Cramps - Stay Sick

Failure - Fantastic Planet

Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES

Soundgarden - Louder Than Love

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Nine of Swords

• II: High Priestess

• Queen of Pentacles

Conflicting Wills can be assuaged with nurturing. Those who oppose you do not have to be your enemy.

So nice when these are so blatantly on the nose.

Failure - Heliotropic

 

From their 1996 album Fantastic Planet, which is really pretty new to me here, thirty years after its release. Failure was never really on my radar in 1996. About twelve years ago, I remember reading something Heaven Is An Incubator wrote about them and wondering how I'd missed them. I gave Fantastic Planet a spin back then, but it didn't leave an impression. Also, that would have been before the advent of Apple Music, so I'm unsure how I listened. Regardless, I would not have had the ability to relisten as often as I can now.

I played Fantastic Planet through once this past Friday morning because Mr. Brown and I decided to hit next year's Space Echo concert and see Baroness, Spotlights, and, with Failure headlining, I figured it would be a good time to take another dip in their sound. 

On my first go-through, I instantly understood why/how I had missed these guys. I actually think I was aware of them to some degree in the early to mid-90s, but here's the thing - I was DONE with this sound by 1996. Just done with it. By the time Nirvana's In Utero came out, I was pretty finished with anything that shared DNA with their sound, be it in songwriting, production or both. 

I'm not saying Failure is a copycat band. Not at all. However, the production on this album definitely owes something to the zeitgeist sound of the day, which is all based on Nirvana's sound. "Alternative" radio beat that shit to death in 1994-97, and just that through-line would have been enough for me to turn my nose up at this back then.

Back to the present, by the end of that first listen last Friday, I found I wanted more, so I played FP through a second time. By the end of that, I was hooked (album opener "Saturday Savior" has been in my head all day as I write this on Saturday).  It's nice to go back and find something from that era to look at with fresh eyes, so to speak, because the only bands from the "grunge/alternative" watershed that I followed were Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. The two that, in my opinion, have the most distinct sound. Now that we're thirty years away from this sound, though, I can hear this album for what it is. Pretty fucking great.

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Watch:

We continued the Noirvember celebration this past Friday with a double feature of two Noir classics: one from the original era of the genre and one of the Neo-Noir persuasion. First up, Joan Crawford and Jack Carson in Mildred Pierce. I adore this film, and recently picked up the Criterion Blu-ray as part of the current Criterion sale. 

I love this film even more now that I've realized the actor who plays Monte is also the screenwriting cop in Arsenic and Old Lace. I guess I'd never watched these two films close enough together before to pick up on that. So many classic Noir elements, from the covetous nature of many of the characters to the lighting, which has stayed with me since K first showed me this one when we began dating.

Next up, Rian Johnson's debut, Brick. 

I'd not watched this one in some time, and was thrilled to see how well it holds up. A very clever approach to updating the Neo Noir formula and applying it to the Southern California High School vibe, not unlike Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars, of which I am also a pretty big fan. Here, though, Johnson makes the choice to have his teenage characters talk in a quasi-Mickey Spillane dialogue; this could have gone way wrong, like that one guy's Romeo and Juliet movie from the '90s. Instead, it just really works, principally because the performances are so strong. Joseph Gordon Leavit stopped being the kid from that shitty sitcom about aliens, and Nora Zehetner, Luke Haas, Noah Fleiss, Noah Segan and Matt O'Leary all knock it out of the park. 

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Read:

Last December, I stumbled on Hellbore Magazine. A fantastic Occult/Folklore/Folk Horror magazine with articles on everything from Haunted Sites to Nigel Kneale. My primary contact with Hellbore was twitter, which I denounced earlier this year, and it wasn't until recently I found them on IG. Glad I did. Check out this offering they have up on their site at the moment:

How could I not procure a copy of this for my overfilled bookshelves? You can check this out and order it on Hellebore's site HERE. 

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Playlist:

Orville Peck - Appaloosa

Failure - Fantastic Planet

Failure - Comfort

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray

The Velvet Underground & Nico - Eponymous

Slow Crush - Thirst

Sylvaine - Nova

Willie Nelson - Oh What A Beautiful World

The Volume Settings Folder - Negotiating Obstacles EP

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

Dean Hurley - Analog Resource Vol. II: The Philosophy of Beyond

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Cups

• Nine of Swords

• Five of Cups

Lots of emotion undercut with anxiety. 

Vulture Feather - Pleasant Obstacle

I'd never heard of Vulture Feathers before this popped up in my feed, probably because YouTube's spying algorithms observed me mentioning Felte Records recently. Whatever the case, this song is fantastic, so I gave their 2025 album It Will Be Like Now a whirl yesterday and quite liked that, too. 

Grab either on the group's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Last night K and I took in the local premiere of Osgood Perkins' newest film, Keeper. Here's another brilliant trailer from the fine folks at Neon, who honestly, do the best trailers in the biz at the moment. Watch without fear of spoilage:

Just like their trailers for Perkins' Longlegs, this trailer shows me so many images that get my brain going, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???" but in no way tells me anything about the plot of the movie. Brilliant!

So how was the film?

The trailer is better.

I'll elaborate that, like the other, pre-Longlegs Perkins films I've seen, Keeper is extremely well made. So much time is spent on building tension, though, that the tension build up begins to dissolve. When shit finally goes off, it's too little, too late.

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Read:

Yesterday I finished Christopher Buehlman's The Lesser Dead. I'd started this mid-October, but apparently forgot to log it here. Then, once I saw GDT's Frankenstein was coming our way, I set this down about halfway through and re-read Mary Shelley's novel just for comparison's sake. Once I finished that, I hopped right back over to Buehlman's fantastic tale of vampires living in the tunnels below the subways in late 70's New York City. 

I've mentioned here before how I have a thing for stories that take place underground, so when my good friend Chris Saunders mentioned this one to me back in September, I pretty much ordered it on the spot and moved it to the top of the pile. The Lesser Dead does not disappoint. If you've ever read Anne Rice's Vampire novels, you know how lush they are in the description of New Orleans over a span of several centuries. Just thinking the words "Interview with a Vampire" conjures immediate mental imagery of the Architecture and copious bougainvillea. Well, there's a very similar lush extravagance in Buehlman's novel, only it's for the dirt and grime of late 70s NY, both above and below ground. He uses cultural touchstones like the TV show Soap and Studio 54 to really anchor the world above ground, and dark, moldy opulence-gone-by of the New York buried beneath the streets to flesh out the world below ground. The novel is gorgeous, riveting, and the narrator, Peter, is so likable and easy to read, you'll blow through this in a matter of days and want more. 

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Ritual Howls - Ruin

Vulture Feather - Pleasant Obstacle (single)

Vulture Feather - It Will Be Like Now

David Bowie - Reality

The Ocean - Even Deeper (single; NIN cover)

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

Dance with the Dead - Driven to Madness

White Hex - Gold Nights

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Cups

• King of Swords

• VIII: Strength

Man, didn't I just have this same pull recently? No, so there are apparently a lot of guitars in this deck. Not a complaint, and really, the fact that I interpret every card with a guitar at first glance as an edict to pick up my axe and make music tells me more than the rest of the spread does.

That said, A) it's really cool to see these in their actual B&W. These days, I almost always shoot by colored light, so it's cool to be reminded of the actual deck's vibe, as it is awesome! B), I'd say this is pretty clearly a three-card sequence suggesting I turn my back on some emotional hang-up, dig in my heels and apply my Will to something that feels like it has power over me. That's a little scary, and I'm not going to make any rash decisions, but it's good to be reminded of how we hold ourselves hostage. 

White Hex - Sisters

 

From White Hex's 2014 album Gold Nights, released by the always lovely folks at Felte Records. This is an old favorite, part of the music that helped me rise from the ashes of my old life. Unfortunately, this Australian duo retired in 2015, so we only have the two albums, only one of which I am familiar with, the aforementioned Gold Nights. While I'm thinking about it, time to check out 2012's Heat, which you can listen to on any of the music streamers, or, at the group's Bandcamp, which thankfully is still up. Highly recommended.

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NCBD:

I'm excited to read a couple of the titles in this week's pull. Let's go!

Last month's #25 was Robert Kirkman and Dan Mora's first issue taking the reins on the title from Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corona and they did an outstanding job! Really set the tone for what is to come, while building on all the little threads woven throughout the book so far. I think Mr. Corona's visual style was the perfect accompaniment for DWJ's narrative; Dan Mora's style feels super slick in comparison - not a bad thing! Look at this cover - it looks a bit more like the Transformers titles Dreamwave or IDW used to put out. That said, there's definitely room to bring the 'bots out of the wreckage they've all languished in thus far, and this could be the perfect way to do that. 

We covered this recently on Drinking with Comics, but I'll reiterate here that my favorite thing about reading my first Spider-Man: Noir series is that all the character's dialogue is in Nick Cage's voice in my head!

Event Horizon: Dark Descent is still shaping up, so I'm not entirely certain how I feel about it. That said, last issue's inclusion and specific naming of the Demon Paimon really surprised me, so I'm here for whatever Hell Dimension madness Christian Ward and Tristan Jones are serving up as we go deeper into the events that set up the film Event Horizon!

The final issue of Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman's brilliant Batman: Dark Patterns! I've loved this series, but it's time to let ol' Bats go for a while. going out on a high note with this one, though. 

The solicitation promises, "... a return to the Terror Drome..." and I am all about that. Kind of a bucket list toy I never procured as a child and I'd be hesitant to invest in if Classified did it now - which they won't - the Terror Drome always felt like the coolest thing in Cobra's arsenal when I was a kid. The way Larry Hama's run depicted Cobra mass-manufacturing them as arms to be sold to any country or mercenary that would pay their price - I loved it so much. It's been a minute since I've even thought about this thing, so let's take a moment and check out the old school toy commercial to cap off today's NCBD!

Man! That takes me back something fierce. 

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Watch:

Noirvember continues with Roy William Neil's 1946 Black Angel. 

I knew nothing about this film before K and I stumbled across it on the Criterion Channel a couple of nights ago. Honestly, I don't even really remember the description, just "staring Peter Lorre can often be enough to get me to press play. And this one did not disappoint. 

Pretty conventional to start, there's a drunk on a bender, a couple shady dudes with hats, and a dead woman. Where this one makes its mark is the fact that it incorporates musical elements and then gets really freakin' dark at the end.

If you're looking for a Noir that does a little something different, this one's worth your time. And hey - Peter Lorre, right?

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stigg OST

Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight

Pepper Adams - Encounter!

White Hex - Gold Nights

Ritual Howls - Their Body EP

Melvins - Thunderball

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Dance with the Dead - Psycho Disco (single)

The Wraith - Gloom Ballet

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Two of Pentacles

• Eight of Wands

• Eight of Cups

Successful partnership requires a sublimation of the Will to allow for Emotion. 

That's kind of a surface level, even shit reading, but it actually holds meaning for me at the moment. Really, that's all I'm looking for with these. 

Lankum - Ghost Town

I was first turned onto Dublin's Lankum when we interviewed All You Need Is Death director Paul Duane last year. Ian Lynch - who did the brilliant soundtrack for that film - counts his time as a member of this group, and that's really all I needed to know. 

From their 12" of the same name, which you can buy HERE.

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Noirvember:

I blew through a rewatch of NWR's Copenhagen Cowboy over the last few days. I am in love with this man's approach to Cinema all over again. 

I've never seen anything like this. It's Noir, Gothic, Modern, Horror, Fairytale... 

..

1) Too Old To Die Young

2) Mona Lisa

3) Thief

4) Copenhagen Cowboy

5) Black Angel

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Playlist:

Ritual Howls - Their Body E.P.

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Steven Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Etta James - Third Album

Creeper - Sanguivore

Various - Copenhagen Cowboy OST

Wake the Devil - Singles Playlist

The Leather Nun - F.F.A. (single)

lords. - bleeding out

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Six of Cups

• Nine of Wands

• XX: Judgement

Nostalgia works against perseverance. Judge past loyalties accordingly.

Ashes and Diamonds!!!

 

Daniel Ash's new project, Ashes and Diamonds, harkens back to his Coming Down and Foolish Thing Called Desire albums from the early 90s, only overlaid with new elements that really make this record shine. Ash has brought along Bruce Smith (Public Image Ltd/The Pop Group) and Paul Spencer Denman (Sade/Sweetback) for the ride, and the three hit on all cylinders. A great listen from start to finish, Are Forever is available from Cleopatra Records. You can order the album HERE. 

Coming out of October and the customary Bauhaus, Tones on Tail jag that always ensures, it feels great to have a new Ash project to get to know. 

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Read:

I am proud to finally announce that my new novel, Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, is now on sale at Barnes and Noble, Indiebound, Bezos Utani, or anywhere else you buy your books. 

Here's my solicitation blurb, which really tells you all you need to know:

"When incoming High School Senior Lisa McCready's boyfriend and classmates are brutally murdered at a party in the woods, the quiet suburban community of Sundown Hills transforms into a paranoid nightmare. Betrayal, corruption and dark family secrets push Lisa dead center into a burgeoning class war, where rival millionaires plot to steer the town's future between reliance on big oil and the incoming age of legalized weed, electric cars and social conscience. As she struggles for answers, the killings continue and Lisa finds the world she knew is little more than a lie to placate the masses and keep a Satanic 1% in power."

I'm super proud of this one. Previously, I'd have told you Murder Virus was the best thing I'd ever written. This takes that crown and runs with it.

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Watch:

limage/textsdd I was originally going to post about Predator: Badlands, however, I'd rather talk about something that inspired excitement as opposed to disdain. Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani are back with a new film and it looks INSANE. Of course it does - that's what they do!

Coming December 5th to Shudder. This just looks like Mario Bava on ten gallons of LSD. 

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Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Secret Chiefs 2 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi

Ritual Howls - Their Body E.P.

Ashes and Diamonds - Are Forever

Slow Crush - Aurora

The Damned - A Night of a Thousand Vampires

The Damned - Fiendish Shadows

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

Sharon Tandy - The Best of Sharon Tandy

lords. - bleeding out (single)

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Swords

• Five of Cups

• Three of Cups

Disappointment leads to impetuousness. To find out way back to Harmony, I drew a fourth card and was told to take a journey. Anyone know where I can get some mushrooms?

New Music From Dreamkid

 

You know, Dreamkid's seriously 80s affectations prevented me from adding 2024's Daggers to my top ten list, but looking back on 2025, I've probably listened to that record way more than some of those that made the list. I really root for Dreamkid, and even if he sometimes leaves me a little cold at first, I overall really love his music. 

This track's gonna have to grow on me, but one thing that definitely made my ears perk up is the brief spoken word part near the end - total M83 influence there! Very cool. 

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NCBD:

Big week. Let's go!

This one leads into big things, as issue 23 saw some crazy shit happen on the Great Ring, and 25 is due to kick off the Quintesson War. Huh - weird that, as we'll see below, this month's GI JOE kicks off the "Dreadnok War." Lots of war in Kirkman's Energon Universe these days, but that's to be expected with all the giant robots and laser weapons.

 

James Stokoe's second volume of Orphan and the Five Beasts promises more of Stokoe's insane art and probably even more insane martial arts action! Love this series. Just look at the cover art - how many hours could that have taken? The detail is insane, and when you figure that every page of the interior is of the same caliber, well, breathtaking. That's all I can say.

This entire issue is a Liam Sharpe opus, and I cannot wait! 

Planet Death! I almost forgot about this book. Still pumping out those old school, mid-80s Dark Horse vibes, for sure. 

Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana returns and I have to confess - I'm considering stepping off this monthly and buying the Hardcovers when they come out. But then I'd have to wait and... I just don't know if I can do that. 

Talk about first-world problems. 

Here it is, folks - the aforementioned Dreadnok War! I love the Dreadnoks and can't wait to see how this is going to go down. Reading between the lines, I think they'll be a body count here. 

Okay, I know I pop in and out of Amazing Spider-Man, so this isn't that weird, right? I think I do it because I need one title that I engage with the way I did as a kid on an allowance, in and out, based on what interests me. This cover? This interests me because that looks an awful lot like Warlock from the New Mutants. I know it's not Warlock, but if it's a Phalanx, this could be very interesting (as long as it doesn't even remotely resemble Phalanx Covenant). 

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Watch:

Saturday, November 1st, I kicked off Noirvember by watching something like nine hours of Nicolas Winding Refn and Ed Brubaker's 2019 series Too Old To Die Young. I finished it Sunday and now I have a great big Refn-sized hole in my life.

This is Refn's version of what David Lynch did with Twin Peaks: The Return, a 13-hour-long movie cut into episodes, or 'volumes' in this case. 

Total. 

Fucking. 

Masterpiece. 

Not going to be for everyone. Hell, it took me three attempts and six years to finally do the entire thing. 

Refn likes to create gorgeous images with ugly content (see Vol. 5: The Fool), and he really wants to punish his audience at times. This is nothing new; you see increments of this in Only God Forgives, Neon Demon and I'm sure some of his other work I'm not familiar with (Pusher alienated me within minutes and I've never gone back). That penchant for beautiful ugliness, combined with his “painting” style will test a lot of people’s patience. n my opinion? It’s 100% worth it. Especially if you’re a Lynch fan, because although his influence is always apparent in NWR’s work, this feels like a love letter to him.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

The Cramps - Date with Elvis

Dreamkid - Apocalyptic Love Song (single)

The Leather Nun - Primemover/FFA (single)

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons (pre-release singles)

Blut Aus Nord - 777: The Desanctification

Ritual Howls - Ruin

White Hex - Gold Nights

The Damned - Night of a Thousand Vampires

Opeth - Still Life

The Damned - Darkadelic

Testament - Para Bellum

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Slow Crush - Thirst

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XIX: The Sun

• Four of Cups

• Eight of Cups

The Triumphant of the Spirit. I like the sound of that. The cards on either side of XIX seem to be telling me to pick up both the bass and the guitar again, something I have ideas for throughout the week during my daily life, and then go blank at night when I have time to actually work on something. Four of Cups is an emotional powerbase, and Eight of Cups is a little bit like that pays off, so I'm thinking I might find it rewarding to put a period at the end of this sentence and then plug in a guitar for a little while, even if I don't have any ideas in my head at the moment.