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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Dreams really do come true!
Haha, seriously, fantastic news yesterday afternoon when I saw Relapse Records announced the first studio album by Deadguy in 30 years. Pre-order Near Death Travel ServicesHERE.
NCBD:
Here's what's waiting for me in my box over at Rick's Comic City Clarksville:
I have been waiting for issue two of Tyler Boss and Adriano Turtulici's Giallo, You'll Do Bad Things, for what feels like forever! Really liked the first issue of this. So much so that Butcher (AKA Anthony) and I did a review over on The Horror Vision after it dropped. Check it out!
Void Rivals going strong. There's big shit coming up soon with the cosmic end of the Energon Universe books, and I, for one, cannot wait to see what Kirkman has in store. The words "Planet-sized" come to mind. I think there may be a race of Unicron-level characters about to be unlocked, but we'll see. Either way, I love how faith and pragmatic survivalism have come face to face in this book.
Final issue of this iteration of Eastman's Future TMNT story, so I'll definitely be going back and re-reading everything up to this point before undertaking this book.
SIKTC is back! Judging by the solicitation, we're still delving into Erica's past, which makes me think that when we finally return to the present, big things are going to happen quickly. We'll see. I loved the previous volume, "Road Stories," and how it filled in a lot of history. So, even though we all want to get back to the current timeline, I welcome more of this "what came before" story we have going on now.
Mark Spear's Monsters is still a bit of a head-scratcher for me, but that's okay. It's nice to have one of those every once in a while. The first three issues seem to set up a story that is huge in scope, so I'm not sure how long this one is planned to run or if we'll get there. Still, Mark Spears definitely has an original take on the Universal Monsters.
Watch:
Great pull today, but I won't be able to grab these until tomorrow night, as I'll have my arse safely ensconced in my local theatre for an advance screening of Lorcan Finnegan's new film The Surfer, which is to be followed by a live stream Q & A with the film's star, the one and only Nicholas Fucking Cage.
Here's the trailer, which I have not watched.
I literally no nothing about this one beyond Title/Director/Star, and that makes me SUPER fucking happy! Best way to see a movie!
Playlist:
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
David Bowie & NIN - Back in Anger 1995
Deadguy - Fixation On A Coworker
Preoccupations - Arrangements
Dum Dum Girls - Too True
McKinley James - Live!
Ghost - Impera
Ghost - Skeletá
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Seven of Swords
• Six of Cups
• Ten of Cups
Futility - Pleasure - Satiety
No matter how hard you try, the joys of life will run out if you don't stop to recognize when you've had your fill.
Man, that's more a fortune cookie reading than I'm used to, but there it is. I'm off today, off with the cards, but my writing's on fire, so that's fine. In the meantime, I guess I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for when enough is enough.
I feel like I've been waiting for the new Perturbator album forever, and now we finally have the first single. I don't love the video, but the track is cool. As usual, though, I'll be holding out for the full album to hear it again. Need that context.
Watch:
Here's a new Irish Folk Horror flick I do not remember hearing about before this past weekend when it popped up on Shudder. You know I love me some Irish Folk Horror; this is well-timed, as Lorcan Finnegan has a new film out and in buying tickets for that tomorrow night, I've already got a hankering to rewatch Without Name, which is possibly my favorite of the Irish Folk Horror genre.
This is Writer/Director Aislinn Clarke's second feature-length film. Their first, The Devil's Doorway, is on a list I have somewhere and is currently streaming on AMC+ (But not their Horror subsidiary Shudder, fuckyouverymuch AMC+), so I'm adding both of these films to my watch list with hopes to have a nice, spooky double or triple feature soon.
I rewatched In A Violent Nature last night, strictly because Joe Bob and Darcy hosted it on the previous installment of The Last Drive-In. Not a fan of this flick, but I did come away with this song, so that's cool.
The album this track is featured on shares its name, and while I didn't love it, I found a pretty reliable evocation of a certain kind of Electro-Indie-Pop that was ubiquitous in Los Angeles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and thus, hits a certain nostalgic trigger for me. I'm not talking smack; I would have probably liked this a lot more back then, but my tastes have definitely shifted, and as it stands after a couple of listens, I do dig this, just not enough to really get excited by it. Still, if you dig this track, check out their music for yourself.
Watch:
Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian received a trailer last week:
This is another example of a creator who must have a hand in controlling the marketing of his films because, like Barbarian, this gives nothing away. I'm not going to test that theory by watching any subsequent trailers New Line releases after this; Weapons hits theatres on August 8th, and I will be there on opening day.
Read:
Over the weekend, I ripped through a re-read of Preston Fassel's brilliant Our Lady of the Inferno. Second time reading this book, and it's an all-time favorite for me.
The depth of emotion here is incredible. This is a book that can scare you, gross you out, and touch your heart. The imagery is above and beyond as Fassel conjures 42nd Street, New York, in 1983, in a way I cannot even begin to describe. You hear it, you feel it, you smell it. The characters are so well-written and so developed that you feel like you know them - like you have known them your entire life. And the Horror is both breathtaking and heartbreaking in equal measure.
I was lucky enough to grab this one upon original publication by Fangoria, but while that edition is long out of print, there is a new edition available everywhere books are sold.
I know I say this a lot, and I always mean it when I say it, but I cannot recommend this book enough. While I would definitely classify Our Lady of the Inferno as a "Horror" novel, it is also a literary Horror novel and one that is far too human to be limited by any genre tropes.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
The Raveonettes - PE'AHI II
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Primus - Pork Soda
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Ghost - Skeletá
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Final Light - Eponymous
Techno Westerns - Lover Boy
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• Four of Wands
• Seven of Pentacles
Emotional breakthrough leads to a stable foundation from which to move forward to victory.
Black Gloves & Broken Hearts is finished and is in the hands of my trusted Beta Reader, so I'm really just waiting on the cover art and any cleanup based on early readers' reactions. After that, we'll be looking at setting a release date. Conversely, I've added a chapter to my latest ongoing Nosleep Serial and moved back to Shadow Play Book Two with the intention of stripping it, streamlining it, and finishing it. I toyed with the idea of turning this proposed trilogy into a duology. However, I think I will simply make books two and three shorter than originally expected. There's just too much sprawl, and I think it's that admitting and acknowledging that right there that is the "Emotional Breakthrough" mentioned in the reading. Roping this in can only lead to a stronger foundation and, thus, completion (Victory).
You know what Jack Burton says at a time like this? Rock on, baby!
I've been listening to John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China score, which means I'm creeping up on a rewatch sometime soon. It's been a minute.
Watch:
Holy F**K, Predator: Badlands, I. AM. INNNNN!
And yet, I feel as though I must offer a word of seasoned warning. This is Fox, so this is Disney. I love that Ell Fanning is playing a Weiland-Yutani synth, thus bringing the two franchises together again in a less on-the-nose way, but I also remember how excited I was for the Marvel MCU and the first Star Wars movie back. Both of those have been run into the ground, so let's hope lessons have been learned and that won't happen to Alien/Predator.
But are lessons ever truly learned in the strip-mining megastructure called Hollywood?
Trachtenberg's return is a calming boon - Prey is outstanding, and this looks to be a little of that, plus the "Hostile Alien World" of Predators. So I will be there opening day.
Posting, but not listening. New albums Skeletá is out this Friday, 4/25, and although Loma Vista hasn't shipped my vinyl yet - I'm not sure what they are waiting for - I'm holding out until I can at least listen to the entire record on Apple.
NCBD:
Fantastic pull list this week! Very excited to hit the shop tonight. Here's what I'll be reading later today:
Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana returns, just in time to line up with my Gideon Falls re-read, so I am very much into more Lemire. Plus, this book has been very cool. Atmospheric the way Lemire does so well.
Still one of the strangest books I've read in quite some time, Into the Unbeing continues to confound and delight me. Macrocosmic Body Horror.
Even though I've cooled on Skybound's iteration of Joe, I'm still looking forward to seeing the confrontation promised by this cover.
Two left after this one. Damn, I'm going to miss this book.
Dust to Dust has really turned out as a sleeper. I don't hear much about other folks reading this book, but I know they're out there.
Watch:
I haven't had a chance to say it here yet, but Ryan Coogler's Sinners is an exceptional film, and a breath of fresh air in what started out a strong year for Horror with Presence, Grafted, The Dead Thing and The Monkey, but quickly became stale.
Sinners shares some structural DNA with Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn in that it both films are actually two movies glued together in the middle with blood. What I love about this is that is the world, right? There's the everyday world where you're robbing a bank or driving around, collecting down-on-their-luck musicians to play at your new Juke Joint, and there's the world where something unnatural arrives and takes you into the netherworld.
With Sinners, the detail is fantastic. You can feel 1930's Southern heat, the sticky humidity, and the life to which these characters live to their fullest, even when they die. Very cool film that I recommend everyone up for a field trip take in on the big screen. The soundtrack through the theatre speakers alone is worth the trip.
Playlist:
Dreamkid - Daggers
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk)
Windhand - Eternal Return
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Card:
Back to the Thoth deck today for a quick, one-card pull:
From the Grimoire, "How true are you to your inner aspirations and will?"
