From 1993's masterpiece, and the start of the three-album trifecta that would endear the Rev to me for life. The Full Customs Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat was produced by Gibby Haynes, and I'm not sure you need to know anything more to understand this record. As with Liquor in the Front and It's Martini Time, I love every song on this record. This might be my favorite, though.
Watch:
Aaron, one of my fellow panelists from The Dread Broadcast, recently posted an interview with Hokum Director Damian McCarthy on his A&B Horror Movies show.
This is a fantastic peek behind the veil with one of my favorite modern Directors. Aaron always does great interviews, but this is one of the best.
Play:
I picked up Tormented Souls for Switch a few nights ago when I saw it on sale for $4.99. I don't remember how this one ended up on my wishlist, but looking at it now, holy cow. Check out the trailer:
Between the haunting piano and the mishapen, masked antagonist, I'm picking up major Fulci vibes! I'm planning to start playing tonight.
I've recently become obsessed with recapturing the magic of Friday nights from just the last few years. It's funny how quickly feelings for a time and place slip away and recede into an "era." Specifically, I'm still reeling a bit with the echoes of Shudder canceling The Last Drive-In. Some of my favorite Friday nights since moving to TN have consisted of getting off work, writing, picking up burritos and heading home to drink beer and watch Joe Bob and Darcy. Once that final movie ends, if I'm able, I retreat upstairs and fire up a game. That's the intention this evening, when I'll pick something from AMC +'s TLDI catalog, watch and then fire up Tormented Souls for the first time.
Sounds like a killer Friday night to me. Hmm... maybe I'll even do House By The Cemetery (if it's still on there).
Playlist:
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST
Jozef Van Wissem and Sqürl - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Darren Smith & Terrance Zhunich - Repo! The Genetic Opera OST
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Swords
• 16: The Tower
• Ten of Wands
A breakthrough of intellect leads to an overturned habit. This, in turn, leads to an abundance of new focus.
Posting this later than usual, but I had back-to-back podcasts last night, and I'm not used to the day-by-day scheduling anymore. Starlight Lounge, from the 1998 album Space Heater.
Well, thought I forgot about the whole "Seven Days of The Reverend Horton Heat," eh? That's because I 100% DID forget.
The one that started it all for me. True, Mr. Brown and I had seen the Rev years before opening for White Zombie on the Astrocreep tour (along with Melvins!), but it wasn't until 88.3 WXAV St. Xavier University played "It's Martini Time" that I fell in love with the Rev's guitar sound and overall aesthetic and bought an album.
I still think this track's guitar is among my favorites ever.
NCBD:
Great list today.
Continuing on as my favorite of the Energon Universe books, this cover to Transformers 33 sends shivers of great joy through my body. I still can't get over all the massive changes Kirkman has added to the book - Optimus giving over Prime leadership to Elita One, Thundercracker ditching the 'cons and becoming a 'bot, and hey, let's not forget, what the hell is going on with Megatron? Hopefully, we'll see this issue.
The finale of this fantastic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep. This story has gotten maybe more traction than any other HPL story in a while, so it's been interesting to see the different takes. Pretty sure Birks/Roberts is my favorite (though I can't help my forlorn wonder at what Richard Stanley's would have been like).
I have zero idea what is going on with this family reunion from the afterlife storyline in TMNT. I mean, I'm following the story just fine; I'm just not sure what this means for the series going forward. I guess one thing to keep in mind is, I don't think this was ever done before. For now, I'll hold my reservations close to my chest and trust in the creative team, as we're almost 170 issues into the relaunch continuity that began back in 2012, and the book has been fantastic for most of that run.
Once again, totally forgot this book was even out there. Going to need a full re-read before getting into this, and I'm wondering if I should just wait until this second chapter runs its course.
Will this actually come out today? This final chapter of Rafael Grampá's Gargoyle of Gotham has been pushed back so many times, I lost count. Still, these are unbelievably gorgeous books that must take a lot of Grampá's heart and soul to produce, so I'm not complaining.
The Energon Universe tightens its stranglehold on my wallet with another book! I never had any of the toys as a kid, but I was always intrigued then and am still now. I've loved the introduction of these characters in the other books, so this feels like a natural evolution.
Looking forward to more of this weird Snake Eyes conundrum. I love that they went all the way back to the first two years of ARAH to show us something Dr. Venom did that we never saw until now. That kind of callback really shows that Hama continues to function at the top of his game, even after 329 issues.
The first issue was solid, and I'm curious what this title will mean for the evolution of SIKTC.
Read:
I'm still working through Stephen King's third novel in The Dark Tower series, The Wastelands. This is my favorite book, so it's a bit amazing to me how long it's taking me to read. I sailed through up to the Doorkeeper in the house on Dutch Hill, where he crosses over into Roland's world. Amazing scene that sort of serves as an act break. After, it's been a bit slower going. Part of that is various other things grasping at my attention - lots of comics to read for DwC, etc. Part of it is also something I only just realized this morning, as I blew through the chapter where Gasher absconds with Jake, leading him into the detritus tunnels of east Lud. This entire post-Jake's section is where the evidence of Roland's world having moved on grows to include people.
Sure, in book one, The Gunslinger, we had the town of Tull, but this is early on in the saga, and Tull feels like a town in a Western, which is what that first book purports to be for it's early chapters, only slowly peeling back the curtain and revealing Roland's world is actually very similar to our own, only a thousand or so years down a timeline where we destroy ourselves with, what I've always assumed, was warfare.
"The ancient, rusty hulks of what had once surely been automobiles stood at intervals along both curbs... There were no tires on any of these eerie hulks; they either had been stolen or had rotted away to dust long since. And all the glass had been broken, as if the remaining denizens of this city abhorred anything which might show them their own reflections... beneath and between the abandoned cars, the gutters were filled with drifts of unidentifiable metal junk and bright glints of glass. Trees had been planted at intervals along the sidewalks in some long-gone, happier time, but they were now so emphatically dead that they looked like stark metal sculptures against the cloudy sky. Some of the warehouses had either been bombed or had collapsed on their own, and beyond the jumbled heaps of bricks..."
The passage above switched on a fairly bright lightbulb when I read it yesterday morning. This is our world. We're not quite there yet, but the fact that, over the intervening roughly two decades since I last read The Wastelands, our world has become an eerily identifiable 're-echo' of Roland's. The key 'tell' here is the fact that the deeper Gasher, Jake, Roland and Oy descend into East Lud and the Tick Tock Man's domain, the more we get a sense that the people who inhabit this land enjoy living amongst the ruins of the old world. That's the thing I always get hung up on when contemplating, "could we actually take things too far?" in our own world, the operative idea being that, at a certain point, all of our in-fighting and disassembling of the mores, conventions and general social reform is going to leave our world covered in detritus and despair and that no one wants that. Only, maybe some people do want that. Maybe some people, to quote Michael Caine's Alfred in Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight, "want to see the world burn." We know those people have always existed; however, maybe they're not fringe, ineffectual nothings who can only damage small portions of our society. Maybe they are the people in charge. The same way late-stage Capitalism has seen the advent of destruction economics, maybe there's a big-picture advantage for those in power in destroying everything we've built.
"He thought he was at last beginning to fully understand what that innocuous phrase - the world has moved on - really meant. What a breadth of ignorance and evil it covered."
Jesus Christ. No wonder King hates trump so much - literally the Ticktock man of our world, and he predicted him over thirty years ago.
Playlist:
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
sunn O))) - Loser
Pilot Priest & Electric Youth - Come True OST
Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta
Boy Harsher - Careful
Blackbraid - Celestial Womb EP
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Sinoa Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST
Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Cups
• Queen of Pentacles
• Four of Pentacles
Emotional Balance takes a steady hand on Earthly concerns, something I'm struggling with at the moment, which makes feel isolated.
Friday's news that Anthony Stewart Head passed away really got me. Exactly one week after seeing Repo! The Genetic Opera on the big screen for the first time, this happens? That's some weird, Universe-shit.
I wasn't the biggest Buffy fan, though the show eventually won me over for a time (seasons 2-5), largely thanks to this man. Then, Repo! and his recurring role as the Prime Minister on Little Britain really cemented my fandom, so much so that I hunted down a CD copy of his solo album (in collaboration with Buffy's composer George Sarah). Not entirely my thing, but the man has a wonderful voice, and I do enjoy its downbeat tempos and flourishes of Trip Hop here and there.
Interestingly enough, my friend Justin just interviewed George Sarah on his Trailer Punk Podcast the other day. Check that episode out HERE.
Watch:
My friend Alex came in for a visit over the weekend, and he, K and I hit Regal for the one and only showing of Adam Carter Rehmeier's new film, Carolina Caroline, starring Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner.
I knew nothing going in other than having seen the trailer once a few weeks ago. Also, Rehmeier's Dinner in America is one of my favorite watches from recent years. Carolina Caroline is a gut-wrenching example of the classic Doomed Love story. Essentially a modern take on Bonnie & Clyde, both Gallner's and Weaving's performances took my breath away. You know where this is going early on, but that doesn't keep it any less heartbreaking. Can't recommend this one enough.
Playlist:
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu
Darren Smith & Terrance Zhunich - Repo! The Genetic Opera OST
Anthony Stewart Head & George Sarah - Music For Elevators
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Dreamkid - Daggers
Boards of Canada - Inferno
The Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Hangman's Chair - Saddiction
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 09: The Hermit
• 06: The Lovers
• King of Cups
I remain overly isolated in my thoughts and designs; I need to let others in more. It will deflect misunderstanding down the road.
I don't know how I feel about post-Hinds Mastodon, but I'm willing to give it a chance. If this single is any indication, though Hinds will be missed, the band is a survivor.
No word on a new album, but they have a big tour with Deafheaven, so something is coming.
Watch:
Check this out! Someone has been creating new episodes of the original Transformers cartoon series I grew up with, in an attempt to show Hasbro there is interest in bringing it back. The best part? I looks exactly like the old series and picks up where that final "Head Masters" mini-series left off!
I can't really wrap my head around how this is possible. Are they actually drawing and animating this stuff? Is this AI? The only discrepancies I notice are some of the voices, but even most of those are pretty damn close.
While randomly scrolling through IG last Friday, I discovered that my prayers had been answered. No, he's still alive and in office - I mean the other prayers. Yep - Mattel has finally released an updated MOTU Slime Pit!
Now it's called the Fright Pit - not exactly sure why - but I don't care. I've seen a side-by-side comparison to the original and this is bigger AND has green LED lights! I can't wait to put this thing next to my OG Slime Pit. This is truly my favorite toy ever and something so deeply ingrained in my pscyhe that, well, it's a little weird.
Playlist:
Revocation - Netherheaven
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Mastodon - Your Ghost Again (single)
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Boards of Canada - Campfire Headphase
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
The Sword - Age of Winters
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Blood Mother - Eponymous (pre-release singles)
Mastodon - Your Ghost Again (single)
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• 13: Death
• Five of Pentacles
Emotional breakthroughs bring change, but to fully give over to a change, you have to become unto a chrysalis. Everything must feed that change.
Holy shit. This is literally an affirmation of something I've been struggling with in Shadow Play Book Two. Something I solved earlier tonight.
I was stopped cold when I realized the robotic vocal samples in this are direct quotations from Aleister Crowley's Magick: Liber ABA.
There's a wonderfully dark throughline of spirituality gone awry on this record, and while I feel like I've only just started to scratch the surface, it's proving to have quite a hold on me. I listened to Inferno multiple times in a row yesterday, and each go 'round felt different.
NCBD:
A light week and a welcome respite after last week's financial apocalypse at the store. I never got around to posting a "NCBD Addendum," but let's just say my wallet got hit upside the head.
Is this new Event Horizon series bi-monthly? I had forgotten all about it.
Finally caught up on issue 2 last weekend, so I'm primed for a new chapter in Andry, Daniel and House's Seaside Horror tale, Estuary!
DC is relaunching Deadman under the penmanship of Ice Cream Man's W. Maxwell Prince. I have the complete Kelley Jones Deadman on my shelf because it's Kelley Jones, so I'm not necessarily attached to the character. Still, I'm curious.
Love the cover, love the book. Fraction and Jimenez are tearing shit up in their Batman book, and I'm here for it.
Watch:
I caught the trailer for Adam Wingard's new film, Onslaught, this past Saturday ahead of Backrooms. Looking forward to this one:
Serious (and obvious) Terminator vibes, and I'm okay with that. Wingard is a curious Director; I'm a huge fan of some of his work, other stuff... not so much. This looks like it will be a blast, and I'm not expecting anything other than unmitigated violence.
Playlist:
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Ian Lynch - All You Need is Death OST
High on Fire - Death is this Communion
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Revocation - Netherheaven
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Wands
• 06: The Lovers
• Nine of Pentacles
Victory comes from a connection, collaboration, but not at the cost of independence.
Friday, Inferno, the first Boards of Canada album in 13 years, came out. I drove to the theatre to see Repo! The Genetic Opera listening to it.
Saturday, I woke up and had a 1:30 PM screening of Kane Parson's Backrooms. I drove to the theatre listening to something else, planning to make my next engagement with Inferno more than just a thirteen-minute dalliance within which I could not fully grasp the entire eighteen-track sequence. Since first being introduced to The Backrooms by good friends circa January 2024, I'd struggled to pinpoint what, exactly, the show reminded me of. While rewatching it last weekend, I realized The Backrooms reminds me of a visual translation of Boards of Canada's music. There's the glitchy, fuzzy, analog technology represented in both, as well as that haunting liminal space, of transition, of between.
When my screening of Backrooms ended, I was shocked to hear "The World Becomes Flesh" from Inferno as the score for the film's end-credit crawl. Not only did that cement my anecdotal theory that Parson (née Pixels) was influenced by BoC's music, but the group held the release date of their first album in thirteen years to coincide with the release of the film.
Wow. Analog ghost worlds, baby. Analog ghost worlds...
Watch:
Most everything I have to say about this is above. Well, except of course that I really dug the adaptation to the big screen.
Previous YouTuber-to-Director endeavors like Iron Lung and Skinamarink made me a bit nervous, but holy cow, Parsons delivered something that the others, in my opinion, did not.
He turned what is essentially a tone-piece into a cinematic motion picture. One of the best examples of what I'm talking about is character development. I think this was what I was most worried about, but he nailed it. Clarke and Mary are both fantastic characters, and it made Backrooms a much better film than I think anyone expected. This is an unparalleled success, and I can't wait to see where Parsons goes from here.
Playlist:
Boy Harsher - Careful
Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Silent -Modern Hate
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• King of Pentacles
• Ace of Swords
• Three of Wands
Earthly matters may dictate much of my life and keep my brain running in the circles of coping with the world, but it only takes a moment of perfect mental clarity (read: vacuity) to kickstart a new adventure free from the confines of the daily 'grind.'
From the upcoming historical anomaly Gravest Gravy, out on Midhaven Records. Pre-order HERE.
This is fascinating for multiple reasons. First, apparently, Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye worked on this, "tape restoration, editing, mixing, mastering and lacquer cutting duties (in partnership with Inner Ear Studios and Infrasonic Sound).
Here's part of the solicitation blurb from Midhaven's website:
“In October 1977, the Cramps ventured into Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with producer and Cramps translator extraordinaire, Alex Chilton. The band had planned on recording their song ‘TV Set,’ as an A side, along with another track or tracks. Mr. Chilton told them the way he liked to work was to have a band record a lot of songs and from that they would pick the best of the bunch.[...] “What happened to the rest of the tracks from those auspicious days in October 1977? In 2026, Larry Hardy, owner and operator of In The Red Records, rappelled down, deep into the vast, sunless vault of the Cramps tape collection, and resurfaced hours later, disoriented and out of breath, but overjoyed with what he’d returned to topside with: six ¼” reels of tracks, mixed by Lux [Interior] and [Poison] Ivy..."
Wow. Just wow. I can't wait to get my hands on this one. Talk about a chunk of history.
Watch:
Heading to see this in theatres tonight and I could not be more excited!
I don't remember when I first saw Darren Lynn Bousman's 2008 Repo! The Genetic Opera. Sometime around when it first hit video. I bought it pretty much instantly, and have watched it countless times since, although not for more than a couple years now. Last viewing was probably in a cemetery in Long Beach with a shadow cast a la Rocky Horror. It was awesome, but now it's time to see it in a theatre on the big screen for the first time!
Man, I pulled out a handful of old Reverend Horton Heat records the other day, and I was shocked at how something I love so much could have fallen so far out of my everyday world. It's Martini Time, Liquor in the Front, and Full Custom Gospel Sounds were a large part of my world back in the late 90s, and revisiting them made me realize I have to bring them back into my life on a regular basis.
To start, I think I'm kicking off Seven Days of The Rev here on this page. First up: A Sabbath-inspired dirge from the 1996 masterpiece, It's Martini Time. Fuck - I was 20 when this came out. THIRTY YEARS AGO.
NCBD:
Ying and yang on full display here lately. Not too long ago, I voiced forlorn sentiments about everything I read being IPs from my childhood, repackaged for adults. Nothing against that stuff, 'cuz, ya know, I love it, but I missed having a Preacher, TheWalking Dead, Transmetropolitan, Vertigo series, etc.
Now look at this.
As I mentioned last month, the first issue of a book taking the moniker Pretty Hate Machine has a lot to prove. I'm not sure we got quite that far, but the setup in issue one has me back for more. We reviewed this on Drinking with Comics HERE.
Now, the first issue of Red Roots? Best comic I've read all year, so I am definitely in on this one. Mike Shin and I reviewed this on Drinking with Comics HERE.
I still have to read the first issue of the 'long lost' Veitch/Mandrake Swamp Thing story from the 80s. I bought it, but somehow... misplaced it? Perfect excuse to read both of these back to back this weekend.
The "Quintesson War" ends, and we'll see if it's with a whimper or a bang. We talked about on DwC HERE, our disappointments juxtaposed with expectations.
A Condon/Phillips Noir - what more can you ask for?
One Energon Universe title and the rest, well, while I'm not ready to put any of these on par with Preacher or Walking Dead, you get the point. All nonexistent IPs prior to these books. Joy rainth down upon mine life like money from a One Wish Willow.
Watch:
I rewatched Ben Wheatley's Kill List last night. One of my favorite films. Period. I love the characters in this film SO much. It's not just because I'm a huge Michael Smiley fan - Gal, Shel and Jay all really connect for me. They're the vital heart at the center of a vile black malestrom.
I enjoy listening to Mr. Wheatley talk about his films almost as much as I enjoy watching them. Case in point.
Playlist:
The Sword - Age of Winters
Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Cure - Pornography
NIN - With Teeth
How To Destroy Angels - Eponymous EP
High on Fire - Cometh The Storm
Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 14: Temperance
• Page of Cups
• Five of Cups
Normally I'd try and go a little more in-depth on my pull, but it's way late and I'm tired. Art and Emotion. That's all I've got at the moment (but it's probably the two fundamental building blocks of "me," so that works).
I rewatched Bryan Fuller's Dust Bunny last night, and I'll be damned - I actually liked it even more upon this second watch! This is one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a while, and it's allll Bryan Fuller. Very much reminds me of Pushing Daisies from back in the day (at some point, I would really like to rewatch and finish the paltry two seasons of that show, which I absolutely underestimated upon first watch but slowly grew to love back when those first DVD collections were released circa 2006/2007).
Anyway, I'm not one for ABBA. In fact, back in the early 00s, before I left Chicago, I used to hang out at a bar called The Roadhouse (no, Jeff Healy did not have a residency there) on Monday nights, and a joke that went around the place was, if someone would put "Dancing Queen" on the jukebox, I would finish my beer and leave. That said, ABBA's "I Am the Tiger" plays over the final credits to Dust Bunny, and it's perfect!
Watch:
A trailer dropped for Victorian Psycho, the film adaptation of Virginia Feito's novel of the same name that has been on my radar since it came out only last year.
As one of the comments on the video's page points out, this is a proper 'teaser,' as it doesn't really show any coherent details about the story, which is always a plus. Add in Maika Monroe, and I'm hoping this sees a theatrical release.
Playlist:
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST
The Sword - Age of Winters
Mascara - Hla-11Tf EP
Massive Attack and Tom Waits - Boots on the Ground (single)
Massive Attack - 100th Window
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Landroid - Imperial Dunes
The Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time
The Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front
Foxy Shazam - Dark Blue Night
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Card:
Drawing from the Thoth again today.
Direct reference to something creative I should have done today and did not. I'll pick up that slack tomorrow.
Another fabulous new track from The Veils. I still haven't seen an announcement pertaining to a new album, but my eyes are open.
Watch:
Eli Roth is really hit-or-miss with me. When I first heard about his new film, Ice Cream Man, the person who told me about it described it as an adaptation of W. Maxwell Prince's Horror Anthology comic of the same name, published by Image Comics. Turns out that's not the case; this is a new, original film from Roth. And where, a few years ago, I would have approached a new Roth movie with more trepidation. After Thanksgiving, though, I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I can't say I've cared for anything else he's done movie-wise, but I love to listen to Roth talk, and his short-lived Las Vegas Goreatorium was one of my favorite things when I experienced it circa 2012.
This trailer does a good job of not oversharing or selling, but one thing really got me here - the blood snow angel. So yeah, I'll take two scoops of f*cked up sh*t on a waffle cone, please. I just hope it tastes as good as that turkey from a few years ago.
Playlist:
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
sunn O))) - Loser
Flying Lotus - You're Dead
Boy Harsher - Careful
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
The Veils - Little White Bird (Fragile World) Single
Card:
One card from my trusty Thoth deck for tonight, 'cuz I'm tired.
Napalm Death covering Slab. With backup singers! This shit is nuts. A big, thick slab of sonic knuckle in your face to kick off Wednesday.
From 2022's Reesentment is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes). I don't know how it's taken me until age 50 to get into Napalm Death, but it happened.
NCBD:
A couple of "Maybes" I'm including today for various reasons. I'll explain as I go. Big week if I bring all this home.
So, apparently, I'd been buying this off the shelf, neglecting to sub, so I never ended up with issue 3. I dig it, but the books are starting to add up, so I'm tempted to let Thundarr go. We'll see.
The end of the series. I can't say I've completely followed everything that's happened in Liam Sharpe's Spawn: The Dark Ages, but it's been profound to say the least. The homage to Wrightson's Frankenstein really helped win me over, but really, this man just makes beautiful, challenging art. Who would have ever thought you'd find that in a Spawn book?
Condon and Adlard? Take my money.
Misommar meets Green Room? Really? That sounds insane. Add to it that Tynion is writing it and I'm in.
Okay, I've seen this "Dire Wraith" technology or whatever it is (The Hallucinatory green stuff on the cover there) in the solicitations for some of the recent figures - all passes for me - and I'm curious to see how this goes down in the pages of GIJOE. I'm also loving the idea that Crystal Ball will be yet another independent faction in this total melee of factions. That's this book's strong point. It's not just Joe and Cobra. It's at least half a dozen agendas if not more by now (Arashikage, Dreadnoks, Raptor, Blud, etc).
One of the funest books of the year, and one that has such a 'Summer vibe." Why? I don't know - maybe because when I was a kid in the 80s, summer sometimes meant hanging out at an arcade with friends, playing Double Dragon, and if there's one major pop culture entry in Death Fight Forever's DNA, it's Double Dragon. Jeez - just saying Double Dragon brings on a super strong nostalgia. No wonder I love this book. Which, incidentally, is SO much more insane than DD could ever hope to be.
Writer Pornsak Pichetshote's graphic novel Infidel from a few years back was one of the genuinely frightening comics I'd read in years, so to see his name attached to the Absolute Green Arrow series being described as "A Horror book" really piqued my interest.
Read:
Last night I drove up to the Belcourt in Nashville to see Taratoa Stappard's Mārama.
I knew zero about this going in. Mārama takes place in 1859, North Yorkshire, where Mārama has traveled from her native New Zealand, the home of her Maori ancestors, to meet a man who claims to know her origins. Mārama is an orphan who never knew her parents, so the pull is strong.
I have seen this described online as a Maori Gothic Horror, and that pretty much hits the nail on the head. This is a gorgeous film, but it is also infuriating. Colonialism is ripe for remembering, with so many in our modern age eager to either celebrate the worst history has to offer or ignore it. Ariāna Osborne is magical and intense as the lead; her unshakeable identity and fury are a balm for her would-be oppressors.
Definitely support this on the big screen if you can - the costumes, sets and camera will work pay off dividends if you do.
Playlist:
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Atticus Derrickson - The Black Phone 2 OST
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST King Woman - Celestial Blues
The Sword - Age of Winters
The Doors - L.A. Woman
The Bangles - All Over the Place
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Palesketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed
Jesu - Lifeline EP
Jesu - Silver EP
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Blackbraid - Celestial Womb EP
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Burial - Untrue
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 20: Judgment
• Nine of Cups
• 17: The Star
Renewal and fulfillment. I feel this after last. Genuinely - driving up to Nashville later at night is a pleasant drive, and sitting in a theatre I love watching a film I knew nothing about really helped put me back in my preferred perspective. Top that off with a short but powerful writing session beforehand, and yes, today I feel renewed.
I think I first discovered Mascara via The Cinematic Void podcast, where, if I remember correctly, Nick Vance - whose band Double Life I adore - mentioned them in a year-end episode a few years back (maybe more than a few at this point). Anyway, I ended up with their 2025 album Going Postal on my phone, but couldn't remember how it got there. I gave a perfunctory listen a week or three back, but yesterday, holy shit. These guys HIT me. I blew through the album and a handful more of their releases (see below). All of them are fantastic.
Mascara's Bandcamp is HERE, so head on over and give 'em a listen. Great independent band that deserves as much support as we can rally.
Watch:
Tim Plester and Rob Curry's new documentary, The Archivist. I'm not entirely sure what this has to do with Weird Walk zine, but I came to the trailer via their YouTube channel, and I generally pay attention to everything they do. This is no exception.
Here's the solicitation blurb from the YouTube post:
"Following in a noble lineage of Great British nonconformists, David ‘Doc’ Rowe has spent the last 60 years tirelessly documenting the rich tapestry of mysterious folk customs that continue to thrive in forgotten corners of this Island Nation. THE ARCHIVIST follows this indefatigable man through the wheel of a year like no other; capturing not only his efforts to get back on the road despite health issues and Covid lockdowns, but also his crusade to find a permanent home for his one-of-a-kind collection."
This is making its world premiere at a film fest in Sheffield at the end of June, so not sure when we'll see it stateside, but I'll be watching for it from here out.
Read:
Back into my Stephen King reread this weekend with my favorite of the Dark Tower novels, Book Three: The Wastelands.
I'm not very far yet, but I'm both shocked and not shocked at how well I remember this one. Not shocked, because I carry quite a bit of it in the daily ether that comprises my 'surface' mind. You know, those books, songs, movies, comics, whatever that are so much a part of you, that made such an indelible impression upon first contact that bits float up apropos of nothing at any given time on any given day. That's this book. Shocked, because even though I've read this three times prior (Once when it came out, once during a reread before Book IV came out, and once before embarking on the full series reread I did when the final three books began to release), I still always blanket assume my memory is not as good as I think it is (for many things, it is not). But no, I fell right in the opening scene with Mir, the 18-story guardian of the woods, like I was rereading yesterday's material.
This very much excites me, because with this proof of memory, I'm eager for certain other key scenes in the book, especially Jake in the 'haunted' house.
Playlist:
Anthrax - Worship Music
Anthrax - For All Kings
Anthrax - We've Come for You All
Rock Burwell - Obsession OST
Abby Sage - Smoke Break (single)
Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Mascara - Hla-11Tf
Mascara - Cameo Blue Estate EP
Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Abby Sage - The Rot
AC/DC - For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ten of Wands
• Five of Cups
• Seven of Swords
Wasting time mulling over disappointing results is of no use. Take the negative and turn it into a positive. Or, to quote Alfred, "Why do we fall down Master Bruce? To pick ourselves back up."
I knew this was coming today, but I had no idea how great it would be! These guys really just don't slow down. I love the track, which is the lead single from their forthcoming first record in over a decade, Cursum Perficio, due out September 18th. No pre-order yet, but it's coming.
I love the track, especially the production. First listen was on headphones and I recommend it - you can really hear all the instruments and voices in their own space, but expertly mixed. And Frank Bello's bass - man! Sounds so good.
Watch:
I knew nothing about Curry Barker or his feature film debut, Obsession, going in. All I'd seen was this trailer and an announcement that A24 had tapped him to helm their upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Obsession is a deeply unnerving film. There's definite DNA here from the first Smile film - of which I am definitely a fan - but Barker has a knack for thwarting expectations and really doing something different with some of the tropes you'll think you recognize, but won't. Also, I am a huge fan of sustained tension, and once this film kicks into the tense stuff, it never relents. There aren't many exhales, and there are times when, by manipulating those aforementioned tropes in different and unexpected ways - like say someone standing in a dark corner watching someone else - Barker creates these delirious ripples in the anxiety, to a greatly disorienting effect.
I walked out of the theatre feeling like I needed to smoke a cigarette (I don't smoke) or take a shower in order to put something between myself and what I'd just endured. That's something special.
Read:
After the first episode of The Terror: Devil in Silver last week - which we are reviewing weekly on The Horror Vision, first episode HERE - I picked up the source material and blew through it in just a few days.
Victor Lavelle's The Devil in Silver is an absolute masterpiece; as much an exploration and reflection on humanity, mental health and the failing system we have in this country for Mental Health. It touched me in ways I'm not sure anything has ever. Also, there's a helluva monster involved, but it is kind of secondary to the mental health themes, which Lavelle really shows insight into. He builds extremely strong characters, and I was hooked; I couldn't put it down. I found myself reading while lying around on the couch with the TV on at night, or until I was falling asleep face-first in my iPad. This one derailed me from my Dark Tower for a few extra days after finishing, as it's still echoing in my head. Great feeling.
Playlist:
Napalm Death - Resentment is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Blood Mother - Night Fires (single)
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Emilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden - Killers
Mascara - Going Postal
Mascara - Hla-11Tf single
Mascara - Cameo Blue Estate EP
Mascara - Eponymous EP
Flower Language - Thrown Into Air
Electric Wizard - Super Coven
Helmet - Aftertaste
Boy Harsher - Careful
Double Life - Indifferent Stars EP
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• Four of Swords
• Four of Wands
Will and Intellect. A strong power base or foundation for creating something lasting. A spark from which something sustaining can be created.
Seems like a writing pull, but I'm having trouble matching it up with... oh. Actually. No. I'm not. Can't talk about it yet, but this is a good reminder about a project I'm working on.
Big decision to make today. Am I going to jump work 30 minutes early and drive up to Eastside Bowl in Nashville to see Deadguy and Napalm Death at my favorite local venue? I'll report back tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a track from the latter's 1987 album Scum.
I'll admit I'm fairly new to Napalm Death fandom. Not that I've ever had anything against them, but my exposure over the years has been minimal at best, and it wasn't until their recent collaboration with Melvins became available from Ipecac earlier this year that I became intrigued at what I'd missed. So far, while the albums I was faintly aware of and slightly exposed to back in the day - 1990's Harmony Corruption and 1987's Scum - are about what I've always thought they were and albums I would not have 'got' back in the day but fair much better now that I've grown into a bit over the years and absorbed influences and offshoots Crass and Godflesh, some of their newer stuff really strikes a chord with me. In particular, 2022's Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes) has made quite the impression on me in only a handful of listens.
NCBD:
Super excited for today's pull. Let's get into it:
The cover says it all: Shockwave is back! Hell yes! Can't wait to see what's been happening on Cybertron since Alita One took over as Prime, leaving Optimus de-primed a few issues back. Kirkman is killing it in this series!
One more issue of Simon Birks and Willi Roberts' adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep, and so far, for a story that's received a fair amount of attention in the last few years, this is probably my favorite interpretation. Birks keeps it true to the story but also streamlines things, and Roberts' art is fantastic. Especially his knack for showing us the evil intentions of some of the characters.
With the giant, magic Kaiju running around at the end of last issue, this one can't get into my peepers soon enough. Gene Luen Yang, Fero Peniche and Freddie E. Williams II have really found a way to keep this book evolving, not easy to do after Jason Aaron's run and all its reamapping of the cast.
Creeping closer and closer to issue 50 and I'm pretty sure some pretty major events for SIKTC.
From the solicitation blurb on League of Comic Geeks:
"THE SECRET OF SNAKE-EYES REVEALED? As Dawn infiltrates the Terror Drome, she learns a shocking secret about Snake-Eyes from their time in Springfield...one that could doom their future!"
Wait, what now? Holy cow, I didn't realize something like this was even on the horizon! Also, look at that cover art! Wow!
I'll confess, the Dawn Moreno character has never really intrigued me, but this? Based on the fact that the current Snake Eyes is a clone of the original (who died at some point when I was not reading this series), I'd say this could be a pretty huge development. Can't wait to find out more!
Watch:
K and I saw Mortal Kombat 2 last night, and I am here to tell you this flick is SUPER fun!
I have zero history with Mortal Kombat. Obviously, I was aware of it when it came out, but I don't think I ever played it, and the first movie I saw was 2021's, which I enjoyed as a pretty fun popcorn flick. This sequel ups the ante by adding Karl Urban - always a plus in my book - and really getting into the lore of the games. Again, I knew nothing of this, and it wasn't really until I heard our recent episode of The Horror Vision that my cohosts Anthony and Missi did on the flick (HERE) that I understood how much story has been built into this.
I will say the fighting choreography is good, but everything feels like slow motion since I saw The Furious last month at Beyond Chicago. So, no offense to MK2, but it still just can't hold a candle to Kenji Tanigaki's film, which I cannot wait to see again in wide release on June 25th!
Playlist:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor -
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
The Monks - Black Monk Time
Steeve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
Drug Church - Prude
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Double Life - Indifferent Stars EP
Napalm Death - Scum
Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Melvins & Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death March
Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts
Card:
My first pull with Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ten of Wands
• IV: The Emperor
• Nine of Wands
It takes strength to overcome the rules that thwart our growth.
A lot of what I'm interpreting as work pulls lately.
