New Music from Year of No Light

 

After falling pretty hard for Year of No Light's 2021 album Consolamentum, these guys have been off my radar for a while. Last week I went deep-diving my Apple Music stores on my phone and ran into that album, spun it a couple times in one day, then this week realized they released a single-track E.P. recently. And let me say - Les Maîtres Fous does not disappoint. At just under 30 minutes, this track goes all over the place in the best possible way, building from literally nothing to some epic, bombastic heights. Out on The Ocean's Pelagic Records, you can order yourself a copy from the group's Bandcamp or the Pelagic webstore that suits you best.

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The trailer for Joe Begos' Jimmy and Stiggs finally came out and HOLY F**KING SH*T!!!

My most eagerly anticipated film of the year. I will drive to see this on the big screen in August if I have to, no problem. The great thing about seeing the "Eli Roth Presents" tag is that, about an hour after I saw this at home, I went to the theatre and saw a slightly shorter version of this trailer play before the Philippou Brothers' new film, Bring Her Back.

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And let's talk about the Philippou Brothers' new film. While their first film, Talk to Me, is a banger in every sense of the term as I define it. Bring Her Back is not. 

This is drab, dour and dark in a way that will seep under your skin and play with your anxiety. This one burrows deep and really picks at some taboo terror. I have several friends who have compared it to Ari Aster's Midsommar, and I can't argue that. Difference between my comparison and theirs is part of theirs hinges on the "I don't think I will ever watch that again." 

I would see Bring Her Back again tomorrow if the opportunity of fancy arose. 

This is going to be in my top ten for sure, possibly top five. I'm further in awe of the Philippou Brothers and cannot wait to see what they do next. 

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Playlist:

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Comic Tropes - How Marvel Comics' Editors Ruined Hobgoblin

America - Sister Golden Hair (single)

Slow Crush - Aurora

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

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Card:

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

• Page of Cups

• XIV: Temperance (ART)

• Nine of Swords

First, I love Grimm's portrayal of XIV, because even though I always associate this card with Thoth's Art instead of the classic Temperance, I can see how Crowley got to the change, and Grimm's illustration here embodies it. The Dark Arts - You must temper them. 

While my entry in the grimoire for Princess or Page of Cups leads off with "Dreams can become reality," it's really all about focus. This is Malkuth, and to transcend it, focus is important. Certainly the dark arts are a form of focus and an expression of Will, and with them, the climax of the Nine of Swords can be achieved.

All of this is really a fancy, Yungian way to say focus and work hard - hard enough for the work to be mistaken/categorized as Magick, and you can accomplish your Earthly goals.

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to no one who reads these pages that I immediately equate this with my writing, as with BG&BH finished, I find myself wondering if I should proceed with publishing it through my Horror Vision imprint, or possibly shop it to agents/publishers. 

All Waves Lead to NCBD

 

From Greg Puciato's 2022 solo album Mirrorcell, which I've been revisiting of late. I'm not sure this final track on the album made as big an impression on me with previous listens, but yesterday it really hit. I love a good outro track, and this one is fantastic; it builds and then explodes and ebbs out. 

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NCBD:

A considerably more robust week than last, here's what I'm bringing home for NCBD:

I can't say enough good things about Tyler Boss and Adriano Turtulici's Giallo-flavored You'll Do Bad Things. Issue three puts us at the halfway mark, and things are bound to get even more f*ked up as the story progresses. 

I never realized how much Skuxxoid kind of looks like Star Wars bounty hunter Bossk, but the resemblance is definitely there in close-up. I thought this guy died an issue or two back, but he's apparently the featured character this issue, so we'll see if that means ol' Skuxx is actually harder to kill than we thought, or if we're going back in time for context on something in the currently storyline. Either way, count me in. Oh! Also, spoiler, but the solicitation for this one mentions the introduction of some other characters I can't wait to see the Energon Universe's take on:

The breakout fan-favorite of the Energon Universe takes center stage. Who is Skuxxoid? What is Skuxxoid? This issue answers all your burning questions and more! Plus, the FIRST APPEARANCE of Wreck-Gar and the Junkions!

 

I'm excited for this one, as the book is breaking up the story from the last few issues with something new, and the introduction of one of my favorite Joes (Beachhead) has me rife with anticipation as well.

Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana has me pretty jazzed right now as well. This man is such an incredible Writer/Artist, and this book has his trademark brand of mystery just dripping from nearly every page.

I originally saw solicitations for the finale of the McKendrys' Dark Horse series Barstow last month, so I'm not sure if I was off or the distributor was. Either way, I can't wait to sit down and read this entire series start to finish. Such an odd and horrifying story.

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I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was due, and I finally got around to a re-watch of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China this past Monday night. 

The only thing, this time, I watched it on Joe Bob Briggs' The Lost Drive-In Patreon, an old episode of TNT's Monstervision with an original air date of 10/19/97. The picture was pretty much atrocious, however, this version had extra scenes I did not recognize from the movie! Of course, there's another Carpenter film with extra footage that was added for television - Halloween - so this isn't that big of a surprise. Caught me a bit off guard, though, and helped make the experience better. 

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Playlist:

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Year of No Light - Les Maîtres Fous E.P.

Greg Puciato - Fc5n E.P.

Airiel - Winks & Kisses: Melted E.P.

Sorry... - Your Smile Is Killing Me (Alt. Version single)*

Sorry... - Drowned in Misery*

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Rick Derringer - All American Boy

Godflesh - Post Self

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

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* Thanks, Tommy!

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• Three of Pentacles

• V: The Hierophant

Emotions run high with the formation of an Earthly routine. 

The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch my copy of last year's Criterion Collection Gummo. Still one of the ugliest yet also most beautiful films I've seen, and the upgrade was just in time. I believe my previous viewing was somewhere circa 2019, at L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre, when Beyondfest brought Writer/Director Harmony Korine in to discuss the film afterward. I wrote about that experience HERE. My old DVD copy was just not going to cut it any longer.

One of Gummo's many joyful characteristics is its soundtrack, and while it led me to several fantastic artists in the early days of my infatuation with the film - I first saw it somewhere around 1999, I think - Mystifier is a band I'd previously not explored. 

Hailing from Brazil, these guys have a pretty interesting history. The song "Give the Human Devil His Due" comes from their 1996 album The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here. How's that for a title, eh? The entire record is good, but so far this track is still the highlight (although that's very likely due to my identifying it with one of my favorite films).

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A Butthole Surfers documentary???? Yes: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt began select screenings in April!

Director Tom Stern has apparently been documenting the band since 1986, so this should be chock full O' historical moments that help cement this band's ironically insane tenure. I'm not sure where to see it at the moment, but I've subscribed to the film's YouTube channel, so hopefully, there will be some news soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the film on its official website HERE.

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Read:

Finally began tapping into the Weird Walk collection released last year:

This is a beautiful hardback book that compiles essays from the 'zine I've talked about here before. The authors cite everything from Jacques Derrida's writings on Hauntology to Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian as they set about discussing pre-history, deep time and their theory that to save the future, we must look back at the past. 

This won't be a 'straight-through' read for me. More likely, I will do an essay or two a week while I read other things on a daily basis.

You can check out more from Weird Walk on their website HERE.

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Playlist:

Pelican - Flickering Resonance

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

Rollins Band - Human (The End of Silence 1991 Demo)

TAD - Inhaler

White Lung - Paradise

Helmet - Meantime

The Ocean - Heliocentric

Young Widows - Old Wounds

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Kamasi Washington - Lazarus OST

King Khan & The Shrines - What Is?!

Federale - No Justice

Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

Anthrax - Among the Living

Mystifier - The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here

David Bowie - Black Star

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

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Card:

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

• Five of Pentacles

• Queen of Swords

• Page of Swords

Intellect over Earthly concerns, or perhaps this is better interpreted as Intellect to hone Earthly concerns.

New Pelican Album out Today!

 

Post-Metal - remember when that term was everywhere? Hydra Head Records (RIP) introduced me to a lot of great bands in the late '00s, and one of those was Chicago's instrumental tour de force Pelican. They've been off my radar for some time, but it feels good to rediscover them through a new release this morning!

You can order Flickering Resonance directly from Pelican's Bandcamp HERE.

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I've become increasingly into Asian Horror over the last few years, and one of my recent explorations therein is the Netflix adaptation of Haro Aso's Alice in Borderland Manga. 

I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material, but more than a few friends have recommended this to me, so I finally gave it a go and might be hooked. 

Ostensibly another entry into the Battle Royale subgenre, this one also has major Cube vibes right from the jump. I'm a big fan of deserted major cities on film, partly because it must be so hard to pull off, partly because the imagery is often gorgeous and prophetic, and this one opens with a fantastic example. I'm not attached to any of the characters yet, but the opening episode's "Rooms Countdown" sequence is very well done and insanely engaging. Did I actually bite my nails? I might have.

There are currently two seasons of Alice in Borderland on Netflix, with a third on the horizon. Apparently that's a bit of a concern for fans of the book, as Aso's work is completely covered in the first two seasons, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

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Cast:

At some point I fell out of the habit of posting the new episodes of Drinking with Comics here, and I realized recently that's just dumb. Mike Shin and I did a new episode this week and it was a lot of fun, so here you go!

We talk this year's Energon Universe FCBD special, Daredevil: Born Again, and finish off our reading and discussion of Grant Morrison's Multiversity, which I still don't like, but at least found a way to stop hating. 

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Playlist:

Swans - The Glowing Man

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

Cartoonist Kayefabe - Jim Lee's Love Letter to Frank Miller

Cartoonist Kayefabe - First Appearance of Deadpool

Eitrin - Eponymous

Turnstile - GLOW ON

Black Flag - Everything Went Black

Black Flag - My War

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

The Untold Story of Transformers The Movie

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jesu

The Damage Manual - Limited Edition

The Coffinshakers - We Are the Undead

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Card:

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

• Four of Wands

• Queen of Pentacles

• V: The Hierophant

Completion can, in and of itself, be a weakness. That's exactly where I'm at. After finishing Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, I was quick to jump back into Shadow Play Book Two and really made some progress for about a week, but now I'm just kind of living off the high of finishing a novel and having a super positive response from my first beta reader. I'm just so fucking happy with how this one turned out; I'm actually considering shopping it to Agents and Publishers. We'll see. In the meantime, The Hierophant completes the consideration by reminding that tapping back into something bigger than myself might help with the creative output. Or, it could be reminding me of the importance of the dogma of ritual, i.e. GO FUCKING WRITE!!!

Stand Back, Derry!

I heard this at some point last weekend, and it struck me that I've never posted it here. I have loved this song as far back as I can remember. A lot of 80s 'hits' became essentially ubiquitous decades ago, however, this one never fails to grab my attention for its duration.

From Stevie Nick's second solo album, The Wild Heart, released in 1983. That would have been when I first heard this, too. I didn't have MTV, but a friend did, and this one was all over 80s radio. 

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NCB:

Short week this week. Wheww! After last week, I'm definitely up for a short pull:

A new Image book I thought I'd give a try. Sounds cool. Here's the solicitation blurb, straight from League of Comic Geeks:

"When Jonathan Reason falls asleep, he becomes... something else. Every night, it stalks his quiet town, killing (seemingly) indiscriminately. When he wakes, covered in blood, our story begins. This new horror mystery from ZANDER CANNON (Heck, Top 10, Kaijumax) shows us the horrifying waking hours of an unwilling part-time killer."

I'm unfamiliar with Cannon's work, however, I really dig books where the creator writes and draws, and sleep has always fascinated me, so I'm looking forward to where this may take me.

The second volume of Zac Thompson's Body Fantasy/Horror Into the Unbeing comes to a close. Will there be a third? Can't wait to find out!

One more after this one. I have loved this book, loved every cover, but none more than this one. Majestic, 

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While I am not the biggest fan of Andy Muschietti's IT movies - they're good, for sure, but also definitely have their issues - I am very excited to get out from under the time constraints of a theatrical release run-time and revisit Derry in a premium television format.

If HBO's Welcome to Derry can even be half what Castle Rock was, I will be happy. There's a full article over on Bloody Disgusting for more information. No release date yet.

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Playlist:

Swans - Glowing Man

Godflesh - Decline and Fall E.P.

Windhand - Eponymous

Hot Ones w/ Henry Rollins

The Coffineshakers - Eponymous

Horse the Band - A Natural Death

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Year of No Light - Consolamentum

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - East Hastings

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Card:

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

• Two of Swords

• VIII: Strength (Adjustment)

• XVII: The Star

Peace is won through routine and commitment. These form the path to Enlightenment.

More about ritual, which I have been sorely lacking the last week or so. Time to hunker down and reestablish my routines/rituals.

The Weird Tale of Helmet Live on KEXP!!!

 

Helmet on KEXP! Thank you to Mr. Brown for sending this my way. Fantastic seeing Hamilton and his current band slice through a nice, tight set.

 

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Yesterday was K's birthday, so I planned for us to stay a night at the historic Belle Air Mansion, which was originally built in 1790 as a private residence and eventually opened to the public in its current restored state in 2019. Since moving to Tennessee in August of 2022, we haven't made it out to Nashville more than a dozen times. It's a city thriving with the wrong kind of consumerism, and other than pockets we've found here and there, not a place either one of us is very eager to frequent. One of those pockets is the area around Dashwood Vintage Market, a BOHO Vintage and Flora shop that captured her heart immediately upon entering. Nearby are several other Vintage shops, one that has a great Vinyl area (Jimbo's) and one (Rivival) that serves as the closest thing to an independent bookstore I've seen since moving here. There were places all over Nashville like this when I was first here in 2005, but in the long corridor between then and now, "Nash Vegas" became the call of the city, and strip malls, franchises and country-star-owned multiplex drinking venues have replaced a lot of the charm. Think of it as kind of a Microcosm/Macrocosm of our society - vulgarity replaced intellectualism long ago, and our current fearless leader seems intent on ensuring that is the only way forward for the States.

Anyway...

Belle Air Mansion is gorgeous. Pricey but located close to the aforementioned Vintage markets, we arrived at 3:00 PM and relaxed into our room, the rustic 1790 Hideaway. After a brief respite, we headed out to Dashwood, only to realize we missed its operating hours by about ten minutes. 

Drat! 

Upon entering Revival, I quickly located the Sci-Fi/Horror section and nearly keeled over when I saw original copies of Weird Tales 291 - 302, with a few missing in there. This is from the late 80s/early 90s period revival of the magazine, and while I only grabbed two of them that first night, we returned the next morning so I could correct that mistake and procure the rest. 

As a Lovecraft and Derleth fan from my early teenage years, I of course know what Weird Tales was, but while I inherently assumed there had been some revival iterations of the literary periodical, I had never seen any edition of the magazine in the wild. Seeing these, holding them in my hands and eventually reading through several stories and columns ("The Eyrie" - essentially the letters column; "The Den" - the review column), I was instantly strengthened by finding an item so intrinsically in tune with my nature, yet also completely crestfallen. Just typing the words 'literary periodical' above thrills me that such a thing ever could have existed. I have a mental and tactile record in my history of a world where a magazine like this could exist, where inside its pages you find multiple ads for other, completely independently run literary magazines available by subscription - the addresses listed for contact clearly the progenitor's home address - but we are so far past this in 2025, anyone who doesn't have the experiential knowledge of this era would surely never know or perhaps even believe it ever existed.

Issue 291 (Summer 1988) was the first I dove into. Featuring a spotlight on Tannith Lee (2 whole Novellas, or "Novelettes" as the editors refer to them) alongside stories by Ronald Anthony Cross, Morgan Llyewelyn, Nancy Springer, Brian Lumley, Harry Turtledove and Ken Wisman, this magazine is a veritable Feast of genre literature. Illustrated entirely by Stephen Fabian with verse by a wide range of authors, I'm absolutely in love with Weird Tales. 

Looking into the history of this revival, it seems the magazine continued unchanged until 1994 when it lost the use of the Weird Tales moniker and became Worlds of Fantasy & Horror - a fantastic name in its own right, but one that was ultimately lacking the, ugh, 'brand recognition' to continue forward with any real momentum. There have been subsequent iterations as well, but I'm limiting my focus - for the time being at least - to what I have, perfect when you consider the years of operation for this revival match up perfectly to when I would have read my first Lovecraft-related work, August Derleth's The Lurker on the Threshold.*

Something I never knew but discovered on the Weird Tales Wikipedia page is that in 1995, HBO licensed the name with the intention of producing a Tales From the Crypt-style anthology show that unfortunately never happened. With Directors like Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone attached, it really is a shame this did not line up with the revival because that might have sealed the deal insofar as cementing an audience.

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* Motivated by Metallica and Iron Maiden's references to HPL, I found a copy of this in the old Record Swap that used to rule the Southwestern corner of Harlem and 159th in Tinley Park, IL. This was at a time before Borders had moved into Chicago's south suburbs, before the stand-alone mega structure B&N, when mall-based bookshops like Kroch's and Brentano's were really all I knew, and HPL was not carried there or in my local library. The edition, Carroll & Graff's 1988 mass market paperback, features HPL's name in text almost as large as the title, but nowhere on the cover does it mention the actual author, August Derleth, so for years I went on thinking this was Lovecraft's work. 

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Playlist:

Butthole Surfers - Live at the Leather Fly

Henry Rollins and Mother Superior - Get Some Go Again Sessions

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Danza III: The Alpha - The Omega

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Soft Kill - An Open Door

Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP

SOD - Speak Spanish or Die

The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)

Tangerine Dream - In Seach of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979

Interpol - Antics

Helmet - Betty

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Bengals - All Over the Place

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Card:

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

• Queen of Wands

• Page of Cups

• Ace of Wands

Female-inspired energy - "she can help you"- massive outpouring of power.

Spending K's birthday weekend with her, a lot of unfettered time that we don't normally get, and I'm feeling recharged. Also: "Dreams can become reality," as a notation in the grimoire, as well as, "Pay attention to your dreams." K and I both had a very early night last night and super strong dreams after our second sleep interval. Let's see what I dream tonight. Perhaps I can go back to writing them down. Always a power boost, that.

New Historical Live Butthole Surfers Record!

 

Butthole Surfers released a live album today! Live At the Leather Fly is on all streamers and available for order on vinyl. It doesn't look like distributor Sunset Blvd Records has a web store, however, one thing I thought was pretty cool is their "buy" link takes you to the standard link tree, only the Record Store Day website sits atop all the other links. From this website, you can order the record from a list of independent record stores nationwide. I thought that was pretty cool.

Apparently, the Leather Fly is not a real club, and there's no real record of when this show took place that I could find. Presumably, the liner notes might have something. However, this is the Butthole Surfers we're talking about...

"Back in the 80s Gibby used to fantasize about a nightclub called the Leather Fly. He wanted it to have a stuffed leather fly hanging in front of it." - That's a Paul Leary quote that's on the youtube page for this song. The album has a fantastic track listing, leaning heavily on pre-Capitol Records Surfers (the best Surfers) but with a peppering of what may have been early versions of tracks that would wind up on that Capitol debut, Independent Worm Saloon. I thought about posting something older than what I went with, but this version of "The Annoying Song" is pretty epic, and it just kind of felt right to put this out in the world today.

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NCBD:

I spent Monday-Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio on a totally impromptu trip based around K's Grandmother's failing health, so I did not get a chance to make it out to the comic shop until last night. Here's what I brought home:

The new arc begins and Megatron is back, kicking ass and taking names. This series has a level of brutality to it that I very much appreciate - one major character meets a crazy, violent end in this one, and it adds to the chaotic uncertainty that haunts the characters. That's a pretty cool approach to the Transformers, who historically kind of hit the ground running wherever you drop them.

Lemire and Walta bring us a new chapter in the current story arc, "The Horror Men," and it's more Highway-based X-Files meets Twin Peaks. We're going deep and dancing on the precipice of some answers, but that only makes it feel like we might have a much bigger picture than first alluded to. Love this book so very much.

I'm pretty bummed to see Justin Jordan and Maan House's Mine is a Long, Lonesome Grave end. This final issue felt a bit rushed, but that might just mean I need to re-read the entire arc from the beginning. There's a much wider world we're only scratching at here, and I'd love to know more about the lineage of "the Weaver Witches" that we come in at the end of. 

Before I dig into the fourth and final issue of The Hive, I'm going to go back and re-read the entire series. This one has some story compression that I came at lopsided, and when I read last month's issue #3, I felt a bit lost. Really cool story and art, though, and with the collected "Volume One" announced for August, I'm hoping we might get a second volume at some point.

I had completely forgotten James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses started up this week. I know nothing about this one other than it is a double-sized (at least) book. Very much looking forward to reading this.

Oh my! I heard there was a big surprise in this year's Energon Universe Special, but I wasn't prepared for... 

Matt Trakker from M.A.S.K.! I wasn't really into MASK as a kid - there was a limit to what my folks would buy me and I think I somehow inherently understood that to add another toyline to my obsession would seriously delute what I could procure from Joe and Transformers - so I'm not nearly as invested in their presence being brought into the Energon Universe as others might be, however, I think it's awesome this is unfolding the way it is.

 

This is yet another notch in Oni Press's 2025 championship belt! Dark Regards is a comedic Black Metal tale of the forming of the band Witch Taint and, ah, Lance, the King of Black Metal! First issue delivered the goods on satire, so I'm in. 

Very pleased to see Batman: Dark Patterns is going a full 8 issues! 

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Watch:

This is everything everyone is saying it is, and yes, I almost threw up.

 

How I made it 65% of the way through the film without realizing it's a take on Cinderella, I don't know. What I do know is The Ugly Stepsister is fantastic - dark and funny and gross and poignant, and Writer/Director Emilie Blichfeldt is one to watch. For your first film to be a period piece of such social and psychological scope is no small feat, and a lot of props should go out to the cast, as well. Especially lead Lea Myren, who goes through every possible emotion on film, sometimes in the course of a few seconds. The things "Elvira" goes through are... insane. 

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Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Black Flag - My War

The Cops - Free Electricity

Turnstile - GLOW ON

Run The Jewels - RTJ4

Death Grips - The Money Store

Death Grips - No Love/Deep Web

This Movie Saved My Life Podcast - Unwatchable II

Crime Weekly Podcast - Rey Rivera Part 4

LARD - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Airiel - Audiotree Live

Airiel - Molten Young Lovers

Les Discrets - Prédateurs

Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood (single)

Killing Joke - Love Like Blood (single)

Killing Joke - Night Time

Killing Joke - Outside the Gate

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth

Rollins Band - Sessions on West 54th (2/26/00)

Henry Rollins & Mother Superior - Get Some Go Again Sessions

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Interpol - Antics

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Card:

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

• Queen of Swords

• Page of Swords

• X: Wheel of Fortune

When Emotions affect Earthly concerns, indecision can look a lot like opportunity and vice versa.

Man, this tells me nothing! I think this is work, but I'm so out of touch with the cards and work at the moment, I'm going to have to just keep an eye on my emotions when dealing with certain folks. 

Ministry w/ Chris Connelly - Do ya Think I'm Sexy (5/9/25 The Riv)

 

Courtesy of In the Loop Magazoine's Youtube channel, which you can check out HERE for all the cool stuff they post!

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Watch:

I'm about halfway through this and I cannot recommend it enough:

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Playlist:

Dum Dum Girls - Too True

Preoccupations - Ill at ease

Dreamkid - Daggers

Crime Weekly Podcast - Rey Rivera Part 3

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

Ministry - Psalm 69

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The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)

Weird rabbit hole yesterday wherein I saw The Jeff Healey Band's The Lost Roadhouse Soundtrack had recently been released. This immediately sent me to YouTube, where I found and watched Healey's 1988 Network television debut on the old NBC Lettermen show and although I saw it when it aired and have seen it a handful of times since, I was once again completely blown away. It's hard not to be. This, in turn, led to my discovery of a forthcoming Jeff Healey documentary, See the Light.

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Watch:

Looks like this one is in pre-production, but still hopeful for a 2025 release. Nice crop of interview subjects (Steve Cropper!), and a really love realizing that there seems to be a healthy 'Cult of Jeff' out there. I've talked about this here before, but being a consummate Lettermen fan from a young age, I was exposed to Healey throughout the 80s on the show and he always blew me away. I didn't turn out the biggest fan of The Blues as a genre, however, key songs and artists from that era made an impact on me, Healey perhaps more than most. 

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Playlist:

Preoccupations - Ill At Ease

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Pinky Tuscadero's Whiteknuckle Assfuck - Halfway to Honky Heaven

Dum Dum Girls - Too True

George Michael - Faith

Prince - Sign O' The Times

Various - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo

Various - Cowboy Bebop OST

Anthrax - Among the Living

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In)

The Fixx - Reach the Beach

Huey Lewis and the News - Sports

The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)

Led Zeppelin - I

Sha Na Na - The Night Is Still Young

Orville Peck - Pony

Led Zeppelin - IV

INXS - Kick

The Plimsouls - Everywhere At Once

Drab Majesty - Careless

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Card:

Such a beautiful card. At times, this is my favorite in the deck. There is a cosmic or eternal renewal association with this card, and that's what I'm connecting to at the moment. I'm not sure how that fits into my current day-to-day, but as usual, when stymied, I keep my eyes peeled. 

New Music From Preoccupations

 

When I added Preoccupations back into my regular rotation a week or two ago, I had zero idea they had a new album coming out. I woke up this morning and saw Apple's push notification that Ill At Ease had been released, promptly made coffee and have been sitting outside listening to it in the post-storm morning since. Exceptional album! A surprise like this is so rare these days, and I am cherishing it! You can purchase Ill At Ease from Born Losers Records HERE.

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Watch:

I was super excited to see Sean Byrne's new flick, Dangerous Animals, is getting a wide theatrical push. I still say Devil's Candy would have been an absolute banger if it had played theatres, but, unfortunately, it came out before this new post-pandemic, Independent Horror friendly world we live in.,

While I'm not really one for mean-spirited torture films, I've come to know Byrne's work enough to know this will be something more than it seems when it opens on June 6th.

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Playlist:

Gibby Haynes - Third Man Records Blue Series

The Black Belles - What Can I Do? (single)

The Raveonettes - PE'AH II

Pinky Tuscadero's Whiteknuckle Assfuck - Halfway to Honky Heaven

Ghost - Skeletá

Ghost - Impera

James Williams - Possessor OST

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

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Set Adrift on NCBD Bliss

P.M. Dawn's 1991 album Of the Body, Of the Soul and the Cross: The Utopian Experience is now available on streamers! 

I talked a lot about this one back in January of 2021 - basically, this is a song and now an album that, while I wasn't overtly into at the time of its release (I would have been fifteen), has become a huge nostalgia trigger for me. Very cool to finally listen to the entire record.

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NCBD:

A solid week of books. Let's get into it:

Plague House's first issue sold me on two things: 1) I am all-in on Michael W. Conrad and Dave Chisholm's Haunted House book, and 2) Oni Press has already captured 2025 as their year, in my opinion.

James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe's Jersey Devil bio has had some pretty crazy moments in it so far, so although I'm kind of looking for books to cut at the moment, I'm definitely going to hang with this one until it ends with issue four. Piotr Kowalski's art, in particular, has really added an ominous sense of momentum to this story.

The cover alone sells the F_CK out of this book.

I completely forgot about this Black Metal-infused, supernatural Folk Horror revenge book by Brian Azzarello, Vanesa Del Rey and Hilary Jenkins. I dug the first two issues, so my forgetfulness is caused by this one's bi-monthly release schedule more than disinterest.

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Watch:

The full trailer for Together dropped a few days ago, and while I'll leave it right here for posterity's sake, not watching this one.

Written and Directed by Michael Shanks and starring Dave Franco, Alison Brie, and one of my favorite actors, Damon Herriman, Together carries with it an unstated implication that this will be this year's big Body Horror movie. I find such an unquantifiable thrill in having this sub-genre on its way to becoming a household word. Blows me away. 

Together is slated to hit theatres August 1st, and I will be there opening day!

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Playlist:

Drab Majesty - Careless

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed EP

Godflesh - Decline and Fall EP

Antibalas - Where The Gods Are In Peace

P.M. Dawn - Of the Heart, Of the Soul and the Cross: The Utopian Experience

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins EP

Soundgarden - Super Unknown

Steve Moore - Christmas, Bloody Christmas OST

Zombi - Shape Shift

Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

OLD - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak

Zombi - Direct Inject

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Card:

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

• Four of Swords

• Queen of Pentacles

• King of Cups

Stability in the Will as applied to Earthly matters is entangled with Emotion and thus, leads to conflict. Nearly a perfect summation of my last few days of work.

HEALTH x Chelsea Wolfe

 

A new collaboration between HEALTH and Chelsea Wolfe dropped overnight, and it's probably my favorite thing Health has released in a while (although I've been slacking on them). I didn't see word that there was a full collaborative release on the way, but both of these artists like to do them, so smart money says that's a yes. 

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Watch:

New Fear Street coming at us at the end of the month. I've been meaning to rewatch the ones from a few years ago, so now's a perfect chance. 

Fear Street: Prom Queen drops on May 23rd on Netflix.

I know there's a contingent of Horror fans who disliked the original Fear Street, primarily, I think, because they're based on teenagers' books. I get it; the whole "Goosebumps/Fear Street" thing happened after I was a kid. When I was an adolescent, my many trips to the Worth Library yielded books that would now be listed in Grady Hendrix and Will Errikson's Paperbacks From Hell. I've never read any of the R.L. Stine or Christopher Pike books, so I can only take the movies as separate entities. In doing so, I don't know, I really enjoyed them. Also, I thought the "1978" installment was pretty damn brutal for a Netflix movie. Both Pike's work and Stine's recent Horror Anthology, The Stuff of Nightmares, reflect two creators who are well aware the folks who read their stuff as kids have grown up and require something more adult. 

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Playlist:

Ghost - Impera

Ghost - Skeletä

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

The Bronx - The Bronx (II)

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

Ghost - Infestissumam

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

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Card:

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

• Page of Swords

• Queen of Pentacles

• Page of Wands

Fear can be grounded, tethered, and can be used as an "Earthly" tool. 

Sounds like a Horror writer to me. 

Mammoth - The End

The song is a bit polished for my taste, but this video put a great big smile on my face. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, with Effects by Greg Nicotero, this is a damn good time. 

You can visit Mammoth's site HERE for merch and tour details.

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Watch:

I am a HUGE fan of the Flesh and Blood season of the Horror anthology series Slasher. I tried the follow-up season and couldn't make it very far, and although I recently realized the original seasons are still on Netflix, I've yet to find the time to go back and finish the first Season - which I liked when it first hit streaming - and give two and three a chance. 

Despite this herky-jerky relationship with Slasher, Flesh and Blood made enough of an impression that when I saw Bloody Disgusting post about this new upcoming anthology series by the same creators, I was intrigued. After watching the trailer, I am in!

Hell Motel starts up on Shudder June, 17th. If I remember correctly, Slasher's new episodes drop weekly, not altogether, so if that carries over to this, that's something to look forward to for sure!

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Playlist:

Ghost - Skeletá 

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Deadguy - Work Ethic EP

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

The Bronx - The Bronx (I)

Alcohol Funnycar - Time to Make the Donuts

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The Endlessly Fascinating Riddle of Neptune's Eye

I've made it a mission to fully engage with Blut Aus Nord's Disharmonuium series again. These guys are so out there sometimes - and I mean that in the best way possible - that I still don't feel like I have a grasp on some of their work. And Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses/Disharmonium: Nahab feature chief among those albums that confound the living hell out of me.

Back in 2018, while reviewing The Dillinger Escape Plan's final album, Disassociation, I mentioned that their music often feels like encountering an extra-dimensional being that I can only grasp in vague cross-sections. That doubles for Blut Aus Nord when they are at their most experimental. The confluence of Industrial and Black Metal on these albums is astoundingly obtuse - this is the kind of music Lovecraft's protagonists occasionally describe hearing in the presence of the Outer Gods. They set a precedent for that with 2011's The Work Which Transforms God - the album that originally drew me to them. The Disharmonium series, however, really pushes that sound into new places. Dark sonic plaguescapes of an almost ungraspable nature. This sounds dramatic, but it's not. Listening to these albums, it's hard to hold onto the music for very long at all; the drums form an omnipresent backdrop upon which the guitars and keyboards (?) bloom and evolve like blood droplets in hot water. Miasma is a word that springs to mind. I'm gearing up for a session where I smoke up and sit in the middle of my floor between my speakers, just concentrate to the best of my ability on the music and where it takes me.

But I haven't found that time yet. 

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Play:

New Metroidvania Moadra looks BAD ASS! Some of these graphics align nicely with what I discussed above regarding Blut Aus Nord, so I couldn't pass up following up with this.

 

This one is hitting multiple game platforms later this year, but, of course, as of now, I'm still only interested in the Switch, so I'm glad to see Nintendo included in the rollout here. You can read more about the game and the other consoles over on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Watch:

A week or two ago, my good friend and Horror Vision Cohost Tori posted a trailer in our podcast group chat. The trailer was for a movie I had not heard of at the time, HIM. I started watching the trailer and had to wonder why she had posted a football-centric film that looked akin to Any Given Sunday.

Then, at about the 41-second mark, the trailer changes. What follows revealed what is now one of my most eagerly anticipated films of the year.

I hate football, but I love films that defy categorization and expectation. HIM appears to be a film that will do both. I've seen this trailer three times now, and where that would normally drive me fucking crazy, each time I just marvel at it, thinking, "What the absolute fuck is this about?"

I don't want an answer. I just want to see it.

Produced by Jordan Peele, this is Written by Zack Akers & Skip Bronkie and Directed by Justin Tipping - three people I am wholly unfamiliar with, making this even more of a mystery.

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Playlist:

The Cops - Free Electricity

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Melvins/Jello Biafra - Sieg Howdy

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Bluekarma - The Communication

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

McKinley James - Live!

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Card:

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

• Six of Cups

• Four of Wands

• Eight of Cups

The joy of completion can lead to inactivity. Keep active. 

Good advice for someone who just finished one book and is pretty hot on the next. Keep it going; don't rest on your laurels.