The Good, The Bad and the Acid

 

From the forthcoming album Shapes of Midnight, out September 18th on Killer Candy Records. I'd tell you to pre-order HERE, but all formats have been sold out since about three minutes after it went on sale last month. I grabbed mine day-of release from the bezos corp. 

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Watch:

Either the kidney stone returned (still haven't found a "doctor" that can tell me if it passed, or my fatty liver acted up and I was couch-bound for much of the weekend. So what do you do when you're in mildly agonizing discomfort? Watch the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns, that's what!

I started Saturday with A Fistful of Dollars. I have this one on DVD, and it felt like coming home again, with the scratches on the film and an almost vinyl-like hiss on the soundtrack at times. I watched these with my Dad when I was a kid, and have revisited a few times over the years; they've always remained somewhat holy to me, but I don't often find the time to sit down and give myself over to the unique rhythms of Leone's classic trilogy. 

When I reached For A Few Dollars More, I watched part on DVD, then moved downstairs and had to resort to Prime, which currently includes all of these. I will say, as much as I love the nostalgia of those old DVDs, seeing the restored picture on these... wow. There's just no comparison.

This sequel is probably my favorite of the three. Lee Van Cleef's Col. Mortimer is a fantastic addition, and Leone embraces the first film's popularity and uses the resultant bigger budget wisely. Nothing showy, but you can see the money and the fact that Leone is becoming a better filmmaker.

Now, we get to the best film of the three. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a damn masterpiece, and the only thing that gives For A Few Dollars More the upper hand in my heart is that, while it's awesome to watch Leon really up the ante on this third one (the bridge!), I feel like the late-in-the-game Union/Confederacy battle with hundreds of extras could have been cut. Again, I think it's Leone stretching his legs and settling into the role of a Hollywood filmmaker. Eli Wallach's Tuco, however, really helps keep the third movie in the series neck and neck for my favorite. 

Either way, while I'm not happy about being in discomfort and getting next to nothing done all weekend, rewatching these felt like a great reset and recharge. Nothing like reconnecting with something from your deep past. 

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Read:

Yesterday I reread Peter Milligan and Kieron Dwyer and Dennis Janke's three-part Dark Knight Dark City that ran through Batman 452-454 in August and September of 1990.

During that initial publication period, I was buying Batman, Detective Comics and the newly launched Legends of the Dark Knight more than ever before. Some of this was still riding the wave of buzz Tim Burton's Batman had generated a year and some odd months prior, and some of it was a succession of storylines within these titles that caught my eye. Even at 14, I had a fairly robust interest in the Occult (still tempered by the dying clinging of religion at that point), so this was a no-brainer. Couple that with the buzz that this series would feature a decidedly more "Adult" version of a pretty goofy character, and Dark Knight Dark City proved similar to J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck's Kraven's Last Hunt in that some of what I found in those pages blew my mind.

18th century devil-cults that  featured Thomas Jefferson as a member? Scantily clad sacrificial victims on black altars? A cartoonish villain that executes innocent security guards with a bullet between the eyes? Batman forced to perform slit a choking baby's throat in an emergency tracheotomy? Zombies????

Of course, all is not as it appears, but the journey to the revelation is quite the ride. This Barbatos (aka Barbathos) would reappear in Grant Morrison's epic seven-year run, which endeared me to it even more. But this dark storyline was possibly the first place I saw Batman run up against such devilish forces, and it thrilled me!

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - One Assassination Under God Chapter 2

Zeal and Ardor - Devil Is Fine X

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - House By the Grave (single)

Blackbraid - III

Blackbraid - II

Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia - Front Door Doxologies

Servotron - No Room For Humans

Brown Whörnet - Emena Pesticide

The Ocean - Solaris (pre-release singles)

The Ocean - Holocene

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

The Caretaker - A Stairway to the Stars

Primus - Frizzle Fry

Man Man - Life Fantastic

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Card:

One from the Thoth deck:

Balance creative fire with ambition and mastery.

New Music from Godflesh!!!

From the forthcoming record Decay, out September 25 on Relapse Records. Pre-order HERE. 

Going back to that health update from Justin K. Broadrick back in early March, this is the penultimate Goflesh record. That gives me chills.

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R.I.P.:

We had an erroneous sneak peek at this post on Wednesday when I pasted in the wrong code, but here's my tribute to Reggie Fucking Banister. R.I.P. 

Back in 2016, I got to briefly say hello to Reggie (from a distance - lots of people and I was extremely concerned with adding to the swarm) on the sidewalk outside L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre. Beyondfest premiered Phantasm: Ravager as part of a double feature with the then-newly restored original Phantasm. I remember reading shortly thereafter that he'd had some health concerns, so maybe ten years on, this was for the best. Either way, sucks to lose such a legend. I always wished we might get a Reggie/Ash crossover at some point when Don Coscarelli began talking about doubling down on Phantasm again in the early 00s. Nothing really came of that, but maybe someday we'll see a comic or something. Either way, I bring it up because Reggie is up there with Campbell for me, as far as 80s Horror Hero Icons.

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Watch:

Last night K and I went to see the 20th-anniversary 4K restoration of Neil Marshall's 2005 film The Descent. Here's the trailer released in anticipation of this new theatrical run:

As a diehard Dog Soldiers fan from shortly after it hit video in 2002, I'd been waiting for a new Marshall film and was overjoyed that his sophomore film received the huge theatrical rollout his first film should have. I don't necessarily have to agree with the consensus that seems to consider this his best film - I dig it, especially after seeing it again on the big screen 20 years later - but it's no Dog Soldiers. It's always bothered me that I've pretty much never cared for any of Mr. Marshall's subsequent films, but he is a definite craftsman and I always (almost) give them a chance.

Watching this for the second time on the big screen, twenty years later, a couple of things occurred to me:

    A) I don't think I've seen this since its theatrical release in 2006, and considering the impact it had on me then via what I've carried with me since, I think I missed A LOT of subtext and nuance that first time around. 

    B) Much like Open Water, The Descent affects me. I have a thing about tight, underground spaces (never been in one, not wanted to be in one) the same way I have a thing about large bodies of water. The film exploits that - to great effect, and the result is a genuinely visceral experience. Everything from the point in the film where Holly takes point, all those claustrophobic shots of the girls wiggling into and through some of the most insanely tight holes - not gonna use the word passages for anything that small - is tantamount to any fear I reserve from a viewing of Friedkin's The Exorcist. But it's a different kind of fear, one that I feel less in my mind's eye and more in my body. This serves the film well, so that when bones start a'breakin' and blood lettin', I'm already there.

One final note - for a 4K restoration, the film looks fantastic, but the sound is abysmal. Maybe the worst sound I've ever heard in the theatre. The dialogue through the first act of the film - i.e., pre-cave - is buried so deep in the mix of the score I gave up trying. The mix gets a bit better once we're inside the cave, but even then, everything feels like it has a thin layer of sonic gauze over it. Shame, because this is otherwise a five-star film. Not sure if that's a problem with the source that couldn't be fixed or if my theatre somehow dropped the ball with their equipment. Either way, it definitely detracted from the overall experience.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

Godflesh - Selfless

The Cramps - RockinnReelinInAucklandNewZealandXXX

The Cramps - A Date with Elvis

Godflesh - Purge

The Cramps - Flamejob

Man Or Astroman? - Intravenous Television Continuum

Godflesh - Living/Ending (single)

The Ocean - Fogdiver

Godflesh - Eponymous

Mastodon - Live at the Aragon

Justin Hamline - This Machine Kills Music

L7 - Hungry for Stink

Sewer Mutant Podcast - Sam Keith Tribute

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

Blackbraid - Arte Concert Summer Breeze Live Stream

 Spotlights - Seance E.P.

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Nine of Cups

• Seven of Swords

• Nine of Swords

Be careful what you wish for? The strategic victory you spent so much time finagling may make things worse.

Definitely a work pull. 

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Primary Colours

From the 2009 album Primary Colours, which I pulled out yesterday and instantly regretted not having listened to in... a very long time. Fantastic record.

I don't know any other records by The Horrors, but this one is fantastic start to finish. These guys obviously got a big push marketing-wise in the wake of Interpol's success, but they are their own band. 

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NCBD:

So what did Wheeljack find in issue 33? My guess: Dinobots!

Every issue of any Shaolin Cowboy series is a gift. Loving Staying A.I. Live.

I've literally been thinking about Of the Earth more days than not since reading issues 2 and 3 last month. I adore this book! Condon's "The Thing meets Blood Simple" is so spot on, and being that those are two of my all-time favorite films, this feels made for me.

One more after this and I'll need to re-read everything that came before. It has been a minute since The Nice House on the Lake was on my radar; looking back on the last few release dates shown on League of Comic Book Geeks, it appears this went bi-monthly after returning from its "mid-season" hiatus. That's fine; not giving anyone sh*t, just saying, October's final issue will be a good prompt to re-read both The Nice House By the Lake and this second act. A quick search tells me Tynion has not announced a third act, but I guess that will depend on how this current arc ends.

So, while I'm still digging this current chapter of ARAH, I have space constraints that are weighing on me a bit. I recently bought a new long box (I phased out all but two long boxes before my move from LA; took a tip from my friend Chris Saunders and switched everything to short boxes. Way more manageable. The two I did keep were out of necessity: TMNT and X-Men. There's easily a long box of both. Coming to the end of my TMNT box has a lot to do with why I just canceled the series from my pull. Now, I'm closing in on the end of my ARAH box (which admittedly also includes the IDW run; the Energon stuff is all in a short box) and I have to consider if I'm going to stop. 

Talk about first world problems.

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Watch:

A few months back, Vinegar Syndrome ran a sale on Kim Stim's Blu-Ray edition of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2016 film Creepy, which I had never even heard of, let alone seen. I'm fairly new to Kurosawa's work, but what I've seen thus far - Cure, Chime and Cloud - have all blown me away, so I figured, what the hell? Let's give it a blind buy.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I did. This one really messed with me, in the best possible way. There is something so alien and yet relatable about Kurosawa's work that has really steeped into me over the viewing of these last four films, and I feel now as though I have to set out on a mission to see everything. There's a level of banality to Creepy that manages to create an unease that is slow, methodical and unexpected at times. The lighting in the Nishino house borders on what I think of as Cyber-Industrial-Gothic, with Tetsuo and Eraserhead immediately coming to mind. 

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Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Various - The (S)hit Factory Disc 2

Various - The (S)hit Factory Disc 3

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets

Sepultura - Chaos A.D.

Mary Anne Hobbs Final BBC Broadcast: Burial and Kode 9 (Sept. 8, 2010)

The Horrors - Primary Colours

Pigface - Fook

Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight (pre-release singles)

Lisa Bella Donna - Reach for the Light (single)

Mascara - Hla-11Tf (single)

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Card:

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

• Eight of Swords

• XVI: The Tower

• Ace of Swords

A lot of strife, which can be a struggle, especially when paired with The Tower, a paradigm either in flux or ruling. This leads me to believe something I adhere to - probably a plot point in Shadow Play 2, or something I hold as an absolute with the characters- will change drastically. I'll resist it at first, then realize the change is needed.

New Music from The Ocean!

From The Ocean's forthcoming record Solaris, out September 25 on Pelagic Records. Pre-order HERE in the States or HERE elsewhere. 

I knew there had been a bit of an exodus from the band within the last year or two, but hadn't seen the new line-up until this weekend when I stumbled on the pre-release singles. Nothing against those who left, but this is the most excitement I've felt for an Ocean release since 2013's Pelagial.

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Watch:

I say this as someone who checked out on Marvel's MCU pretty much with Civil War, which I wasn’t a very big fan of. I’ve liked some things about a few subsequent films (of which I’ve only seen a few), but overall have been saddened to watch a carefully planned, confident approach to a blockbuster universe become tiresome, meek and rudderless. 

I LOVED Brand New Day and consider it the first Marvel movie I’ve actually liked - one that gave me repeated chills - since Age of Ultron (I really dug Raimi’s Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness, but not as a Marvel movie, as a Sam Raimi movie. Regardless, even that didn’t come close). 

I’d go so far as to say Brand New Day is the second best MCU movie thus far, coming in right behind the original Avengers film. Was it long and prone to indulgences? You betcha. But I was here for all of it. Best of all, almost none of the cameos were fan service - they all (mostly) played a role in the overall story. Which, after the exhausting (but not un-fun) Deadpool Loves Wolverine, was nice. I'm still all about street-level Marvel, which basically, at this point, means DD, Frank Castle and Spidey. Would be nice to see something else added to that list eventually, but for now, I'm happy keeping up with this little corner of things.

There are a couple huge ideas/plot points this film intentionally leaves hanging, and I'm a bit bummed that I'll have to wait until all the Avengers: Apocalypse Now Buddy B.S. is over before we likely get another proper Spidey flick. I find myself begrudgingly curious about Dr. Doom and Battleworld, so maybe I'll eat my words and watch that simply to stay in with Spidey's adventures in the "big potatoe" tier of the still hobbling overall MCU. I'd love it if they just left Peter alone and firmly entrenched at street level, but I guess that was never going to happen, so...

All right, Doom. Thrill me.

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Playlist:

Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics

Face to Face - Don't Turn Away

Firewater - Ponzi Scheme

Justin Hamline - This Machine Kills Music

Show Me the Body - Alone Together

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine X

Pigface - Gub

Pigface - Welcome to Mexico Asshole

SOD - Speak English or Die

Anthrax - Cursum Perficio (pre-release singles)

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

The Ocean - Precambrian

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album

Various - The (S)hit Factory: Disc 1

Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Sepultura - The Cloud of Unknowning EP

The Ocean - Pelagial (Instrumental)

The Ocean - Solaris (pre-release singles)

Bohren and the Club der Gore - Sunset Mission

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Card:

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

• Four of Wands

• Six of Pentacles

• Knight of Cups

Completion and success, but at a cost. 

Gatta Morta - Black Hall

Gatta Morta is a new band featuring Buzz Osbourne (Melvins), Jeff Pinkus (The Butthole Surfers, Melvins) Coady Willis (Big Business) and - totally new to me - Clinton Jacob from Chicago band Mr. Phylzzz.  I was unfamiliar with Mr. Phylzzz until Mr. Brown mentioned them to me in relation to news of this EP, which is on sale via Amphetamine Reptile and most likely long sold out. Pre-order whatever is left HERE. If you missed it like I did, you can wait a year or so, and Ipecac will probably put out a version as well.

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Watch:

Na Hong-jin's Hope looks a bit like another A Quiet Place analog; however, I'd say the similarities are probably how the film secured a wide release in the States and are likely played up for the trailer. Either way, looks pretty rad:

Hoping this one will find its way to me here in Clarksville, but I suppose I'd be amenable to a drive if I have to.

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Read:

I finished Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla two nights ago and, after reading the corresponding chapter about the book in Bev Vincent's The Road to the Dark Tower, immediately picked up Dark Tower Book Six: Song of Susannah. 

Here's another one I've only read once, and not since it was first published over twenty years ago. A lot of Wolves... came back to me as I read, but I also retained more of an idea of that novel than I did with this one. I remember King himself making an appearance, but with some of the crosstalk between books that pepper Bev Vincent's handling of these last few, I am getting a sense I remember very little of both this and the final book. 

Song of Susannah is a paltry 400-something pages compared to Book Five's 709 and Book Six's 800+, and that's not a complaint. I still have two Talisman novels to read after this (three once Other Worlds Than These drops in October) and based on a tidbit Vincent mentioned that I'd never heard before - namely that the Crimson King actually first appeared in Insomnia, a book Mr. Brown read when it came out while we were in our Senior Year of High School and I've been curious about since - I think I'll be adding that nearly 800-pager to the year's list. There's a cheap first edition hardcover in an antique store near me that has my name on it. After that, I'm considering rereading The Regulators and then finally diving into Desperation (following the announcement that Sam Raimi will be helming an adaptation of that), both of which I have hardcovers of. There's also the Robin Furth/Jae Lee comics that broaden the overall Dark Tower series, all of which I've read but not since publication.

Shit - I'm exhausted and yet also jazzed just by putting these plans down on paper. 

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Playlist:

The Black Keys - Magic Potion

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons

United Future Organization - 3rd Perspective

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

Secret Chiefs 3 - Hurqalya (Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws) 

Ween - God Ween Satan Live (disc 1)

Tomahawk - Eponymous

Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (disc 1: Tower)

The Ocean -Phanerozoic  I: Palaeozoic

The Ocean - Solaris (pre-release singles)

Morphine - The Night

Miles Davis - Bitch's Brew

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• 16: The Tower

• 18: The Moon

• Knight of Pentacles

Drawing the Tower has plenty of connotations, just in common with what I'm reading, but aside from that, I can see that I'm in for some ying and yang balancing and possibly some unexpected developments pertaining to my goals, which is great, because things have been tough. My health hasn't been great - it's undetermined whether I've passed this stupid stone, may have another gestating, and there's a persistent discomfort in my left stomach that's freaking me out. All this has left me pretty on edge, run down and just generally morose. Yesterday was different, though, and hopefully the cards herald a change. 

It's been quite some time since I've really gotten into Ween, which breaks my heart because at one time, and in some perpetually occluded way, they are and were one of my favorite bands ever. 

It started with Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween)'s Freeman album and hearing his side of the rift that had torn the band apart a few years prior. I wouldn't say I ever took Gene's side over anyone else's, but there was just something so disturbing about hearing the behind-the-scenes shit on this band known for reveling in intoxication that broke something in me. I wouldn't say anyone was at fault but Freeman himself - we all take responsibility for our choices - but it just left me cold. Then, when the band eventually reunited, I don't know, it just felt like the old, 'Ya can't go home again' rang true. 

Yesterday, a message from Mr. Brown about the new three-disc anniversary edition of 12 Gold Country Greats set something in motion, and I started listening to Ween and found I couldn't stop. I feel like I reconnected, but what's more, I realized something important.

Ween takes me to a place - a state of mind that I believe I share with my two best friends in the world - Mr. Brown and Sonny Vee. We all live in different places and can't see one another nearly as much as we would like (I could definitely make more of an effort), and so listening to Ween makes me reflect on missing our friendship in the day-to-day, as something I could experience in the flesh, and that leaves me sad. So, while I may be over whatever bullshit I had due to Ween's breakup (finally), I don't think it's likely I'll be doing more than what I did yesterday - the occasional freefall back into a state of mind that just doesn't gel with the world of 2026. Or, at least for the moment it doesn't.

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NCBD:

Another light week, thankfully...

Glad to have Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana back. Love this book, and I've been in the mood for Seaside Horror, even if this book is really more Horror adjacent. 

Unless something huge happens - and I mean HUGE - this is probably the last regular issue of MASK I'm picking up. I just don't really care about this end of the EU. I know at some point I'll at least partially regret this decision; these titles are all so tied together, after all, that we've seen Scrap Iron working for Miles Mayhem and Matt Trakker build his vehicles from Cybertronian technology. So logic dictates that 'crossing of the streams' will continue. That said, I did not have any MASK toys as a kid; I never saw the cartoon (that I remember) or read the comics. So I think I can let this one go.

Event Horizon: Inferno is the Event Horizon story I've wanted for thirty years. Destined to be in my top of the year. 

With all the crossover stuff happening around this book, I am very happy that Fraction and Jimenez appear to be keeping that from infecting the regular book. Because I really dig everything happening in this one. Issue 5 is still probably my favorite comic so far this year. So I'm invested. I just don't care about Commissioner Vandal Savage, Mayor Poison Ivy and the whole police angle. It feels too beholden to what Marvel just did in Daredevil: Born Again. I know this always happens with the big two: they share concepts like this. It's fine. I haven't minded what we've gotten of this so far in the book, and actually quite liked the idea of the police hunting the Bat-Family. Now that this plot point is turning into a full-on "Event," I just want it to stay the hell out of the book so it can focus on other things.

Like Minotaur, who my cohost Mike Shin pointed out is almost definitely an AI crime boss. Now that's not something I've seen anywhere else. You?

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Watch:

Monday night, K and I hit the Regal Mystery Movie: Horror Edition and were thrilled with an early screening of Eli Roth's Ice Cream Man.

This movie is f*cking bonkers!

Weapons meets Terrifier is my elevator pitch. Weapons, because there are children running around constantly causing mayhem; Terrifier because their mayhem consists of brutally murdering every adult they encounter in some of the most graphic ways I've seen on a big screen since Terrifier 3. This is not for everyone - I can't tell you how many people walked out of the theatre Monday night - but if you have a sick sense of humor like I guess K and I do, I think this will really make for a fabulous night at the theatre!

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Christmas, Bloody Christmas

Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi

The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop OST

Ween - 12 Golden Country Greats

Ween - Featuring the Shit Creek Boys: Live in Toronto Canada

Ween - Live at Stubbs (Disc 2)

The Black Keys - Magic Potion

Alice in Chains - Sap

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Gatta Merta - Black Hall (single)

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Card:

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

• Four of Pentacles

• King of Swords

• XVI: The Tower

Soundgarden - Holy Water

The penultimate track on Soundgarden's 1991 masterpiece, Badmotorfinger, "Holy Water" always ushers in a bittersweet feeling for me. I love the track, but it signals the outro of the record, with "New Damage" following to wrap up what has been one of the most satisfying listens in my lifetime.

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Watch:

Penny Lane is Dead has been on my radar via word-of-mouth from my friend and Horror Vision cohost Anthony (That's King Butcher if you're on the IG), and without knowing anything specific, I've been wondering when it will reach us (and if it will receive a theatrical release). Here's the trailer that just dropped:

 

Honestly, I shut this trailer down by the time the Shudder logo popped up. I don't need to see anything beyond those initial, frenzied flashings - I'm in.

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Playlist:

The Caretaker - Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia

Uniform & The Body - Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back Again

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Judas Priest - Greatest Hits

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer

Ministry - The Last Sucker

Ween - Bring Out the Foos: Live 1996

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters

Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Three of Swords

• Nine of Wands

• Nine of Swords

Pain and closure. 

Julian Winding - Dolce Mio (Her Private Hell OST)

The final track on the soundtrack for Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell. Most of the score is written and performed by Pino Donaggio, but there are several tracks by Julian Winding, and each one is fantastic. This particular one closes out the album.

Someone release this on vinyl!!!

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Watch:

Nicolas Winding Refn's 28-minute Giallo-infused short film A Touch of Crude, funded by Prada, is more than just a showcase for their fashion line. 

 I only just learned of this via the most recent issue of Fangoria magazine, where Isaac Feldberg’s Monster Invasion column focuses on Her Private Hell. Even after initially reading this a few weeks ago upon receipt, it wasn't until digging back into the issue yesterday morning as I prepped the next episode of The Horror Vision that I realized this might be something I could watch online. Sure enough - see above. 

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Read:

I'm about two hundred and something pages into The Dark Tower Book Five: Wolves of the Calla and, remembering that this is one of the books in the series I've only ever read once, back when it was first published on November 4, 2003, I'm shocked at how perfect this book picks up the transition from Wizard and Glass. 

I mean, it feels like King wrote this in one continuous stream, despite the fact that, between books on June 19, 1999, King was hit and almost killed by a car and went through an arduous recovery. In spite of all that, the story is completely intact, and it feels like no time off occurred between books.

I guess that's Ka for ya.

Reading this one now, it strikes me how deftly King manages to continue the overall story of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy on the path of the beam and integrate a pretty thrilling classic Western story at the same time. We spend roughly two hundred pages picking up after the events of Wizard and Glass, continuing the "Path" story, introducing Todash - which I adore - and then segue into the "Defend the town from the reavers" trope that so many classic Westerns employ, only here, executed in King's unique vision. I'm curious if by the end of this one it will outrank Wizard as "the best of the series," and if so, if that trend will continue on through the final two books of the series.

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Playlist:

Her Private Hell - Pino Dinoggio

Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered

Nia Archives - Emotional Junglist

The Caretaker - Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Melvins - Tarantula Heart

Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Ministry - The Last Sucker

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• King of Wands

• Five of Swords

• Two of Wands

Inspiration comes from the inner turmoil of stepping outside your comfort zone. Back to the fortune cookie-esque reading, but it's timely.

Holy Fawn - Drag Me Into the Woods

I knew nothing about Holy Fawn before last week when I stumbled across them on Apple Music. Listening to their 2018 album Death Spells, I was pretty blown away. The band's Wikipedia page lists them as Black Gaze, which I won't exactly contest, but there is a lot more than that going on here. This entire record is fantastic, and I'm looking forward to digging into their follow-up, 2022's Dimensional Bleed. 

Fantastic album names that completely fit their sound, too. 

Check out Holy Fawn's Bandcamp HERE.

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NCBD:

Shortest haul in a while. Enjoy, wallet - you've earned this!

Loving this series, thus far. Not sure how long a trip we're in for on Red Roots - the solicitations on League of Comic Book Geeks stop next month with #5. Hope that's just a "seasonal hiatus."

DeMatteis back to do a What If...? Based on the greatest Spider-Man story ever written? And it's a one-shot? Sign me up!

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Watch:

I haven't seen I Sell the Dead since it first hit DVD, back in 2008/2009. Probably watched on a through-the-mail DVD rental from Netflix. So I was super excited when I saw Vinegar Syndrome (or one of their partner labels) had it.

 

My copy arrived yesterday, so by the time you read this, I've already revisited this one. In a weird coincidence, Writer/Director Glen McQuaid had just ended up on my radar again via one of the more recent issues of Fangoria, where they did a piece about his new film, The Restoration of Grayson Manor, which is making the festival rounds now.

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST

Ministry - Animositsomina

Ministry - Amerikkant

Spotlights - Love & Decay

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

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Card:

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

• Ten of Cups

• VII: The Chariot

• XIX: The Sun

Only thing I'm interested in knowing right now is if I'll end up in the ER again - the stone I thought passed apparently did not, because yesterday was ROUGH. The cards don't really work that way, but I'll take these three as a nod to happiness, determination and success as a nod that I will be able to weather the storm on my own.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats Cover Ozzy!!!

Man, if there was one song in Ozzy's solo discography you had asked me would be perfect for Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats to cover, it would be this one. So cool...

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Watch:

Thursday night, I attempted to see Nicolas Winding Refn's new film, Her Private Hell. A large, discarded wheel in the middle of the left-hand lane on I-24 took care of that; I saw it too late and ended up blowing both driver's side tires, having to pull some pretty scary driving to make it to the safety of a Waffle House parking lot on Dickerson Pike (like less than 10 miles from the fucking theatre, no less) and waiting for Triple A. The entire ordeal took about three hours, and luckily, despite driving on the tires for probably five miles, nothing on the car was damaged except the rubber, which was still under warranty. Telling you - want a good tire? Yokohamas are well worth the $$$.

Anyway, Saturday I did my reattempt and successfully spent two hours of my afternoon staring at one of the most beautiful motion pictures I've seen in some time. 

Easily my favorite film so far this year. Unlike anything else, but hot damn does this one drive home just what an acolyte of David Lynch NWR is. Too Old To Die Young clearly followed Lynch's template with Twin Peaks: The Return, namely making an almost twenty-hour film and then breaking it up into "episodes" to meet distribution demands. And Her Private Hell definitely has Mulholland Drive/Inland Empire DNA, but it takes it to that beautifully specific NWR space - neon-drenched darkness and impossibly lush sets with perfect symmetry. This film even injects a Science Fiction angle that, delivered in NWR fashion, reminded me of Blade Runner 2049 on two tabs of Ecstasy.

Also, I've never been a huge fan of Pino Donaggio's scores. I dig what he did for Don't Look Now, Tourist Trap and The Howling, but a lot of his other work - especially on those early De Palma films - just don't work for me. He scored this, though, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Sounds like 1940's Hollywood.

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Read:

One final book before I jump back into my re-read of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Bryan Smith's The Unseen is fantastic!

Here's the solicitation blurb from Goodreads: 

"For Allison Cook, the weekend trip to a horror convention in Virginia is a fun break from work and humdrum reality. Then she meets a guy who shows her a movie that shouldn’t exist, one that upends everything she thinks she knows about reality itself. The movie on the old VHS tape is an unseen and unknown installment of a legendary slasher franchise she’s loved since the dark days of her unhappy adolescence. As soon as she sees it, she knows the movie is the real deal, not a fake or a fan film. She can only come to one impossible conclusion--the movie is from some other alternate reality. It is not of this world. And she knows one other thing. She must have it. At all costs. And by any means necessary. But unknown to Allison, possession of the tape comes at a higher price than she ever could have imagined."

I read this one in a night. I started it at 11:00 PM, read for a while, fell asleep, then woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it and just tore back into it until I finished. Can't say that about many books; only others that come to mind are older Palahniuk, circa Lullaby, Choke and Diary.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Ministry - Burned Out (single)

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

Fen - Epoch

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple

Cliff Martinez - Only God Forgives OST

Pino Donaggio - Her Private Hell OST

Ministry - The Last Sucker

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Swords

• 03: The Empress

• Two of Wands

Nurture that insight and maybe run it by a third party of their opinion. 

RIP Jennier Finch

 

RIP. I don't give these ladies nearly the spin time they deserve. I'll never forget the first time I heard "Shit List"-a friend's car one afternoon, senior year. Everything about it blew me away. Everything about these ladies always blew me away, from their good nature at being referred to as "the wives of Metallica" back in the 90s while on tour, to their heavy fucking riffs and take-no-shit attitude. 

Finch's bass really made L7's sound. That low end, and how she positioned it so perfectly between Donita Sparks' and Suzi Gardner's guitars and Demetra Plakas' drums, just made them stand out. You can make sonic comparisons to Mudhoney and Melvins, but that's more era than anything else. 

I went back to their second record for this post because Jennifer takes lead vox, it kicks, and I love the good-natured (?) shade she throws at some of their, uh, contemporaries. Hahaha.

 

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Watch:

Ti West's next film is a version of A Christmas Carol? Really? Well, I'm there. And look - Johnny Depp!

I'd love Depp to make a comeback, and can think of no better Director for him to do it with than West. I'll definitely have my arse in a seat for Ebenezer come November 11th. This will also fit in nicely with the newfound proclivity I've exhibited the last few years for British Ghost Stories around Yule.

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Read:

After finishing Wizard and Glass last weekend, I took a short detour from the Dark Tower books to read some Giallo! First up, P.J. Thorndyke's Five Kisses From A Blasphemous Nun - best. Title. EVER!!!

This novel NAILS Giallo! A fantastic mystery that revolves around a series of grisly murders, a possibly reincarnated or possession-happy nun accused of heresy, and the Italian Fotoromanzi business. I really dug this one for its attention to detail, which in turn made it a breezy read (2 days) and completely immersive. 

Next, after reading David Sodergren's Death Spell last year, I'd been wanting to pick up another of his books, and Dead Girl Blues fit perfectly with the theme, although the author admits that while the novel began as a Giallo, it morphed as he wrote. Sodergren ends up coining the term Slasher Noir for it, and I think that's perfect. 

This one is mesmerizing in its violence and depravity. Again, two days to blow through it (both work days). Not for the squeamish, but worth the work. I'm shifting back to the Dark Tower books soon, but there's definitely more Sodergren in my future!

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight (pre-release singles)

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Crystal Spiders - Metanoia

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Obsession - Methods of Madness

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

L7 - Smell the Magic

L7 - Bricks Are Heavy

L7 - Scatter the Rats

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Pat Benatar - Little Too Late (single)

Journey - I'll Be Alright Without You (single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Knight of Wands

• Nine of Cups

• Queen of Wands

Ambition, wishful thinking and creativity. Hmm...

Ozzy Osbourne!

One year ago today.

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NCBD:

My comics pull for Wednesday,, 7/22/26:

Despite not caring for the "Quintesson War" storyline very much, I'm liking where everyone landed in the fallout from those events. I think Darak and Solila off the Great Ring and in cahoots with Pythona.

My final issue! All the way to 300 with these guys. Hats off - still the best reboot of anything I've ever experienced. 

I finally caught up on this earlier in the month and spoke about it HERE. As I ready myself for this final issue, I'll just say this is also a contender for best of the year. So nice to travel back to the Vertigo 80s with ol' tall, green and swampy.

The penultimate issue before whatever #50 is going to do to change the series. Loving these "young Erika" stories, but ready to get back to the here and now.

The final of Chris Condon and Jacob Philips' first Ezra Cain mystery. Hoping there will be more down the road, although these will undoubtedly read better as trades, so I may refrain from buying any more of this particular series monthly.

 

I dug the atmosphere and overall storyline for Brutal Dark, and I've said it before and will continue to preach - we need more stories to remind the world that nazis and nationalism are bad. Especially now, when there's a growing number of people in our culture afraid to talk about the unpleasantness of the past. 

Another that will easily ride out the year in my top five. 

The finale of this wonderful aquatic horror mini-series! Oni still going strong.

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Watch:

I'll admit I watched this trailer not expecting to care one way or the other about this flick. It feels a bit like that strain of Horror that includes titles like Afaid and Megan 2.0. That said, there's a jump scare here, though, that made me laugh out loud. In a good way!

Also, what I did not notice at first - this is directed by Rob Savage, and I quite enjoyed both Host and The Boogeyman, so I'm in.

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight (pre-release singles)

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

Carlos Rafael Rivera - They Will Kill You OST

Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi

Pilot Priest & Electric Youth - Come True OST

Zombie - Shape Shift

Boris/Merzbow - 2R0I2P0

Mastodon - Marrow Deep (pre-release singles)

Spotlights - Alchemy for the Dead

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

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Card:

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

• Seven of Swords

• Knight of Pentacles

• XIII: Death

Big change brought about by successful ambition. No idea where to apply that in my life, unless it's telling me my ambitious trek to abstain from beer until at the very earliest November 5th to help my liver recover will pay off. And by pay off, I mean grant me the rest of my lifetime happily drinking pints (maybe not every night anymore, though...).

Converge - Dream Debris

From their recently released second record this year, Hum of Hurt. Though I have to admit, I'm familiar with all of about four Converge records, this is probably my favorite track among that lot. Total Cure Pornography vibes on that opening.

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Watch:

I got a late start for Giallo July yesterday with a viewing of one I've always heard about but never watched, Pupi Avati's The House with Laughing Windows. Here's a trailer:

This one moves at a pretty slow pace and seems to have taken some visual cues from Argento's Deep Red, which came out the year before, but I still really dug it. The setting has A LOT to do with winning me over, but also, I think I was just in the mood for some off-the-beaten-path Giallo. Like, the kind that the entire film is in Italian! As I mentioned, the location is fantastic (and I feel like that's the biggest influence from Argento), and the end is pretty Giallo-brand bonkers. This is currently a buy or stream for $3.99 on Prime, and even though we all know buying digital movies is just asking to have your money (and your film) taken away, it's worth it even if you just watch it the once. 

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Playlist:

Tool - Undertow

Savages - Silence Yourself

Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Anthrax - State of Euphoria

Anthrax - Among the Living

X - Los Angeles

Converge - Hum of Hurt

Inferno - The Antropic Sophisms (On The Heights of Despair)

Windhand - Soma

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Card:

Back to my trusty Thoth deck for today's card.

Took today off to aid in recovery, but I'll be back writing again tomorrow. 

Napalm Death Tiny Desk Concert Fundraiser for NPR!

'Nuff said.

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Watch:

Mourning the loss of Sam Neil, and while there are a ton of genre flicks my mind goes to on reflex, I thought I'd post a trailer from a somewhat recent favorite of his I discovered thanks to Mr. Brown. 

Taika Waititi doesn't always blow me away, but this one definitely does.

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Read:

I finally caught up on Chris Condon, Andrew Ehrich and Charlie Adlard's Of the Earth. Man, this is easily sitting in my top five comics of 2026.

This is sweet Charlie Adlard widescreen comics, and the story by Ehrich and Condon is fantastic. There's a great interview on Fangoria HERE, and we review the first issue on Drinking with Comics HERE. Suffice it to say, major The Thing and Blood Simple vibes, and if you're as big a fan of both of those films as I am and you wonder what the intersection where they meet looks and feels like, look no further.

There's some fantastic prose in each book, as well. Excerpts from a book that gives more context to the Wildcatter myth. This is a monster book, folks, and it is extremely effective thus far.

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Playlist:

Judas Priest - Stained Class

Savages - Silence Yourself

Savages - Paranoid/Prayer (single)

C.na - Eclipse Mechanism (Instrumental) (single)

Anthrax - State of Euphoria

Squarepusher & Z-MACHINES - Music for Robots EP

Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

Chappell Roan - Good Luck Babe (single)

Devil Master - You Worms' Vein Dilusions (single)

Devil Master - Ecstasies of a Never Ending Night

Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid

Thou - Summit

John Cale - Fear

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Swords

• Nine of Cups

• Nine of Swords

The card that's really sticking out here is the Nine of Swords, known as "Cruelty" in the Thoth deck. I ended up in the ER yesterday morning with what I was told by the attending physician is the worst pain known to humanity, male or female. I didn't know what it was when I went in, but goddamn, was I in bad shape. I do not exaggerate when I tell you I did not possess control of my body for a good three hours. I surrendered that control to the pain. It had me do things I could only observe as if from outside, through a misery-frosted window. I have a fairly high pain threshold, and I tend to handle my pain with obstinate stoicism, but not yesterday. No. A kidney stone brought me down. I was screaming, growling, puking, writhing like a man possessed. In fact, I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that in the Middle Ages, people confused kidney stone symptoms with demonic possession. 

Again, not embellishing here at all.

The Page of Swords and Nine of Cups indicate that all this torment wasn't for naught. I believe I'll have some major insights in the coming days as I continue to convalesce (I haven't passed it yet, but as of writing this at 8:35 PM Thursday night, I have not been in pain since the early afternoon).