5 Days 'til Halloween

 

Over the weekend, Chelsea Wolfe released a cover of "In Heaven" from David Lynch's Eraserhead. After being a fan for years and charting her remarkable evolution as an artist never content to stay idle in any on particular sound, I didn't think it was possible for me to be surprised or 'like' Ms. Wolfe any more than I already do. This proved I was way wrong, and that's awesome. There's a level of excitement introduced back into my relationship with her music that makes it feel kind of new again.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I had a hard time deciding on a flick last night and ended up doing something I'd been meaning to for a few years now - going back and revisiting Mike Flanagan's 2011 feature film debut Absentia. Still holds up like it did when I watched it back when it first landed on Netflix, circa 2011 or 2012 - this was the flick that put Flanagan on my radar and the reason I went out and saw Oculus in the theatre. It's really been awesome seeing him grow into such an awesome director, and all the indications were here in this first flick. Limitations be damned, he really made something special with this one:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons

25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia

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Playlist:

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Iress - Prey

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me

Doves - The Universal Want

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Type O Negative - October Rust

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation EP

Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Chris Connelly - Phenobarb Bambalam

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Card:

Continue to build upon the solid foundation you have previously laid. I'm hoping for an extra day off this week. If so, MASSIVE writing day.

7 Days 'til Halloween

I received an email alerting me to the fact that the copy of Mr. Bungle's Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny shipped yesterday. Oh glorious day! I cannot wait to double down on this one when it lands. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

23) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

24) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

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Playlist:

Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation EP

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Ancestral Recall (pre-release single)

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Valley (pre-release single)

Deftones - Ohms 

Mr. Bungle - Sudden Death (pre-release single)

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Card:

Speed and negligence can bring about severe troubles. A great reminder on a day I woke up late for work.

8 Days 'til Halloween - New Zeal and Ardor Out Today!

 

New Zeal and Ardor dropped today! Six songs and Manuel Gagneux continues to evolve this project in ways that keep it feeling anything but stagnant or gimmicky. Love this band. Buy HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Last night I went up to Hollywood and visited my friend Keller for the first time since early March. Hollyweird is not exactly a place I want to be at the moment, but tucked away in his apartment, the petri dish of the streets is far removed, so it at least felt safe. We talked, played each other a bunch of music we'd been into or found since our last palaver, and then rounded out the night with my DVD copy of Filmrise's Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait. Keller had never seen this, didn't even know it existed, and what's more, he had only days before just watched the original TCM for the first time. He's a brave man, and a student of film, so he did the scholarly thing and watched the original with the 2003 remake. Full disclosure: While there are a few small things I liked about that remake, it is a film I abhor. I hate Jessica Biel's 'acting' and the film's and its denouement's insistent on plying her character with enough water to soak her white shirt to her flesh. I hate the way the extremely impressive scene that follows the bullet through the hitchhiker's head and out the back becomes transparent in the final frame and you can clearly see the actor has been replaced with a dummy (otherwise, it's an awesome shot). I know there's more I hate about the film, but that's what I remember and I've thankfully put the rest out of my mind. 

But I digress. The original TCM is a classic, and we spent a good deal of time talking about its charms and strengths, then I showed him A Family Portrait - all in-depth interviews with the primary film's villains - Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, John Dugan, and of course, Gunnar Hansen. They tell stories about the film's set, and the absolute insanity director Tobe Hooper used to sculpt the set, mood, and performances of the cast. 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait will blow your mind, and it is definitely the film that helped grow my appreciation of the original film into the holy reverence I hold it in (it's not a film I watch often, and I'm not a card-carrying, memorabilia-collecting fan, but when I do find myself in the mood to watch it, I do so in quiet reverence every time). I consider A Family Portrait and essential companion piece to the original film, and lo and behold, the entire thing is on youtube:

 

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

23) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

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New Creepshow animated special hits Shudder THIS Thursday, 10/29 - just in time for Halloween!

While season on of Shudder's Creepshow started out with a bang but kind of became a series of diminishing returns, I'm still of the opinion that any Creepshow is better than no Creepshow. Can't wait!

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Playlist:

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste

Joy Division - Still

16 Horsepower - Low Estate

Crystal Castles - II

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery

The Misfits - Earth A.D.

The Rollins Stones - Hot Rocks 2

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Card:

Grandiose ideas and the Will to transmute them from intangible to palpable.

9 Days 'til Halloween - Deafheaven Live Daedalus

New, live Deafheaven from the forthcoming double-live album Ten-Years Gone, out December 4th on Sargent House. Pre-order HERE. 

I ordered mine along with a nifty long-sleeve shirt back in March (I think it was March). I received the shirt shortly after, and only just recently remembered the good news that there was Deafheaven vinyl on the horizon.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Believe it or not, I'd never seen the original The Omen in its entirety. I fixed that last night, however... not a fan. It has a few moments, and I enjoyed David Warner, but overall, this one just feels like it's a bunch of Hollywood types 'hanging out in horror' because it was seen as a lucrative career move after the success of The Exorcist. I'm not saying I'm right, but that's how it felt to me.

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

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Playlist:

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Fields of the Nephilim - Elizium

I took a break from the Halloween vibe today and whipped up a Spotify playlist based on a lot of stuff I was listening to ten years ago or so. Here it is:

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Card:

Undertaking an arduous working will tax the Will. This is an indication to replenish it, which I'm looking at my month-long Sam Hain celebration as a battery-charging exercise for.

10 Days 'til Halloween - New Kill or Be Killed

 Holy smokes! New Kill or Be Killed dropped last week and I had no idea! I've still yet to break into Greg's solo record Child Soldier, which dropped a few weeks ago, but I think as soon as All Hallows passes and November settles in, I'll start really digging into this stuff. 

New KoBK Reluctant Hero is out November 20th on Nuclear Blast, pre-order HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

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NCBD

Some great stuff this week.

This book really has been fantastic. Such an interesting, original take on the Zombie genre, and a large part of the story really plays more with mashing that up with a kind of neo-noir crime story. Very cool.

Bebop and Rocksteady? Can't wait to see these two make their return to the book. 

The penultimate issue of Gideon Falls! I'll be sorry to see this one go, but I can't wait to see what Andrea Sorrentino does next!

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Joy Division - Still

PLaNETS - The Dark Woods

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Also, new installment of Bret Easton Ellis' new, serialized novel/memoir dropped this week. SO GOOD. Sign up for his Patreon HERE to get in on this.

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Card:

I feel like this week is all about fortitude, so this card makes perfect sense. Between being short at work, my back acting a bit weird again, starting in on writing again, and being on call, my hands are full and two days into the work week, I'm already feeling as though I'm running on empty. That said, I always manage to rise to the occasion.

11 Days 'till Halloween

 

Time to break out the MLWTTKK. While Confessions of a Knife is my go-to from them, the first album is pretty rad as well, and nothing on it lights my fire like this track.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 Love Come Hack to Me

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Playlist:

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Fields of the Nephilim - Elizium

Geraldine Fibbers - Butch

Naked Raygun - Basement Screams

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Alice in Chains - Dirt

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I see Good Spirits, I See Bad

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Card:

More inspiration, most likely from a larger-than-life source.

12 Days 'til Halloween

I know a lot of folks are up in arms about Michael Graves' political leanings. Being a person who dislikes staunch adherence to either party, I feel like there are good people on both sides - although these people are the ones who definitely get noticed the least, as they're not running their mouths preaching the kind of hate and intolerance now trafficked in on both the Left as well as the Right. Either way, I haven't ever looked into Mr. Graves' political philosophies because I don't care. I love the two records he did with the Misfits and after that, well, for me he just fell off the face of the planet, which I am 100% okay with. I rewatched George A. Romero's Bruiser recently, and the Graves-era-Misfits make a cameo in, and the bonus features on the disc reminded me that the late, great Mr. Romero directed this music video for the band. How absolutely perfect, no?

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31 Days of Halloween:

I haven't watched Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning since I lived in Chicago, around the time it was released direct to video circa 2004, and in keeping with this year's attempt to watch some of the more under appreciated films in my collection during 31 Days of Halloween, I knew this would be a great undertaking. 

Here's the thing: when I first saw this, I did not want to like this movie. 

Why? 

Because it will ETERNALLY disappoint me that we got Ginger Snaps Back and not a proper Ginger Snaps 3, as in a continuation of the story started in the first film and carried through the second. Ginger Snaps 2 is one of the best sequels I have ever seen, and I SO very much wanted to know what happened next after that insane cliffhanger that changes every facet of Brigitte's story. Ghost's (a very young Tatiana Maslany) actions really throw the story to that point on its back, and the fact that the third movie didn't follow up on that was devastating. But after that initial watch, I have to admit, after rewatching Snaps Back, I'm once again resolute that this film stands on its own as a great reinterpretation of the original story.

After Orphan Black - also created by John Fawcett -  and Ms. Maslany blew up, I felt a slight reinvigoration of hope that maybe we'd get a proper conclusion to the original Ginger Snaps timeline, however, that hope is now essentially long gone. So Snaps Back is what it is, and I guess I'm okay with that.

I guess.

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

1999's The Haunting is an absolute stinker. The house gets five stars. The film gets one. Not even gonna put a trailer here.

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Playlist:

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II

Van Halen - 1984

Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series

Dead Swords - Enders

Skinny Puppy - Last Rites 

Fear Factory - Demanufacture

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Card:

The fiery part of fire denotes activated Will, which fits, as I'm back in the swing of writing and it's going very well. The idea that I may finish writing two novels in one year is pretty great, and a total esteem boost when I need it most.

14 Days 'till Halloween: New All Them Witches

 

An absolute stunner! This new All The Witches video released yesterday does that rare thing, it takes a strong emotional song and marries equally strong emotional imagery to it. These guys are truly a level above.

"Rats in Ruin" is taken from the album Nothing is Ideal, which is available for purchase HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Thursday Shudder dropped the new film The Mortuary Collection by Ryan Spindell. I wasn't expecting this one to be what it was at all. The Mortuary Collection is very much cut from the same cloth as Trick r' Treat, with a healthy dose of classic Spielberg. The music is swelling, majestic, and sometimes hammy, but only in the right places. Same with the story and acting, all around a knock out. If you're a Tim Burton fan, a Michael Dougherty fan, or a Neil Gaiman fan, this is for you:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

Also, yes, I am most definitely aware Roseanne is not a Horror film, however, their classic Halloween episodes from my youth fit perfectly into my 31 Days of Halloween, another reason I'm glad I modified the name and nature of this annual section. That season two Halloween special - the first the show did - is still a damn knock out, and I had not seen in since it aired in syndication way back in those original few years of the original show.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - October Rust

Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets

The Misfits - Static Age

The Misfits - Earth A.D.

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

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Card:

Reminding me to take care of the trademark proceedings I began recently for The Horror Vision after finding out someone else started a podcast of the same name a year after we did.

15 Days 'til Halloween

Because I can't seem to get enough Type O this year. Well, that's every year in Autumn, but I suppose I'm smoking more pot this year, and it's making me appreciate them in a way I don't normally get to relive these days. Big difference between having a few beers and listening to music, and smoking out with one. Especially one you've loved for this long. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9

Yeah, so I'm hearing a lot of talk that people feel Bly Manor isn't as good Hill House. To each their own, I suppose. Both series are two distinctly different things, and I don't see how, for myself, I could compare them. I loved both, and I watched them two years apart, so I do not feel qualified at the moment to compare them. I will say, the finale of Bly Manor really dug into the heart strings. A class act all the way around the board on this one.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - The Origin of the Feces

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Type O Negative - October Rust

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1

Ritual Howls - Into the Water

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digi pak)

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Card:

Seeking guidance. 

16 Days 'til Halloween

Because Ritual Howls' 2016 album Into the Water is one of those perfect albums, some of the individual songs that make up that perfection get taken for granted. This is one of those. Although, honestly it's hard to hear this in a way that doesn't lead directly into the next track on the album, 'Coils and Magnets'.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

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Playlist:

Halloween Playlist

St. Germain - Tourist

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Prince - Sign O' The Times

Deftones - Ohm

Jucifer - L'autrichienne 

Chris Connelly - Sleeping Partner

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

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Card:

Getting the wheel turning again on several things that are in need of closure.

17 Days 'til Halloween

It's been nice to finally get the first album by my old band Darkness Brings the Cold digitally distributed. I recorded this album roughly fourteen years ago - I finished it shortly before moving to LALALand. There's more to come, as the singer/songwriter Dennis Hellmann and I recorded by ourselves before putting the band together, and then via email after I moved. The stuff before is great but a little rough around the edges at time, especially when other collaborators are involved (not the guys in the eventual band). The stuff after is great, and I have no qualms about releasing it as it stands now.

For the record, I have zero shame in liking this music so much because frankly, all I did was play the guitar, and on every album but this one, I never heard any of the songs until after they were finished and a full album. When we were working by email, sometimes that was months. There's still one we recorded ten years ago that I've never heard (massive production stall, and then some). Dennis wrote almost all the songs on bass with an Acid Pro backing track, then I came in and laid guitar. In the case of this particular album, Devil Swank, Vol. 1, former Tub Ring drummer Dave Tavares - a long-time friend well before this band - and the dearly departed Jeremy Musika helped Dennis and I re-arrange preexisting material for a four-piece band. It's nice to finally get this stuff on streaming platforms so I can seamlessly interject it into my Halloween playlist.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

reef frequent - Geolocationism

Jucifer - War Bird

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Card:

Balance can be easily upset.

19 Days 'til Halloween: Skinny Puppy - Morpheus Laughing

 

I've been hip-deep in old Skinny Puppy records and it feels great. It's been a while since I've sunk this deep into theirt catalogue, and I've even begun making inroads into listening to some of their later records, beginning with 1996's The Process, a record I avoided when I was younger because of all the hulabaloo around its release. I have to say, other than the first song - which is the only track on the record that was recorded at their old Canadian studio - I'm not entirely convinced I should go any further. Last Rites always just seemed like a perfect place for their existence to stop.

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31 Days of Halloween:

We did the first two episodes of Mike Flanagan's new The Haunting of Bly Manor yesterday for our main entry in 31 Days of Halloween. Really good. Flanagan's craft continues to evolve, his ability for total immersion in the worlds he creates among the best out there. Based on the works of Henry James, basically wrapping all of his ghost stories up into one narrative, I can't wait to see where this goes.

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor (episodes 1 & 2)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

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Playlist:

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights

Skinny Puppy - Inquisition EP

Naked Raygun - Raygun... Naked Saygun

Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Van Halen - 1984

Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park

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Card:

 

This card suggests a reserve of quiet strength and a domestic outlook. This is interesting when I juxtapose those concepts with my own continued estrangement from the state in which I live. Over the last few months, I've begun to seriously long for transporting my life with K to a more reliable, affordable, and low key location. Small town life sounds amazing to me. I think some of this is just a natural reaction to all the insanity the last four years have produced, however, I am not foolish enough to think that if captain hairdo gets voted out things will change or get better. In fact, regardless of the outcome - in which I definitely hope captain hairdo is ousted - I think things are only going to get worse. This is where that reserve of quiet strength comes in handy, and I'm happy to be reminded of it now.

New Zeal and Ardor!

Musick:

Wake of a Nation EP out October 23rd, pre-order HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Last night's viewing was an unexpected one: Darren Lynn Bousman's Repo! The Genetic Opera. It'd been probably six years since I saw this one last - I remember because that was a communal viewing in a cemetery with a shadow Cast! At any rate, I had to dig my DVD out of storage, but it was well worth it. I love this flick so much, especially Anthony Stewart Head's character. Here's one of my favorite scenes:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

 

Oh! And I did attempt to watch 976-Evil II, but within 30 minutes deemed it unwatchable. I do not believe this is Mr. Wynorski's fault; quite the contrary. Within the film there is an evident barren feeling due to what I would imagine is a limited budget and a complete misuse of the funds they did have. The sets are often barren, as with the hotel room George "Buck" Flower's Turrell finds himself in after being taken into protective custody by the police. I don't know if I'm simply still adjusting to having a 4K television and how it highlights shortcomings in older productions, but the sparse contributions by the Art Department, and the ridiculous explosions (a toilet? Really? You spent production money on an exploding potty?), combined with the limited lighting, made me feel as though I was watching this one through the view screen on a camcorder.

Also, the gratuitous Spike-with-Machine-Gun scene was just lame.

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Read:

After I finished re-reading Clive Barker's iconic The Hellbound Heart, I picked up the Kindle edition of The Toll, a novella written by Mark Miller, who works with Mr. Barker at his production company, Seraphim. 

From the author: "Hellraiser: The Toll is a novella that bridges the events of The Hellbound Heart and The Scarlet Gospels. We thought it would be fun to see what kinds of hell Pinhead had been raising before we saw him in The Gospels. In Clive's novel, there's mention of a lot of mayhem Pinhead has been getting into in preparation for his hostile takeover of Hell. So there was lots of room to dive into what exactly that mayhem might look like. And in that conversation between Clive and me, it seemed to make sense that he'd visit Kirsty and that he'd also want her to be a witness for him, since their fates are tied together. "It's a short book, but Kirsty goes through a lot along the way. And we also get to see who she's become since her time with the legendary hell priest. I'd written for the comic, which was an incredible experience. And having worked so closely on Gospels, and also with Clive all these years, when he gave me his blessing to take them into the world of prose, I hit the ground running and never looked back. A lot like Kirsty in the story. But you'll have to read it to find out exactly what that means."

I liked The Toll, but I didn't love it. It's cool to see a literary sequel to the Hellraiser film, as opposed to a sequel to The Hellbound Heart. There are definite differences between the two, primarily that in Hellbound, Kirsty is not the daughter of Julia's husband, and he is not named Larry. Instead, Julia's bough is Rory, and Kirsty is merely a friend. Barker's original novella is, of course, well worthy of its iconic status, however, being that he wrote and directed the film, the book has always seemed to me a first pass at what he eventually perfected on camera. 

How often does that happen, eh?

At any rate, I liked catching up with Kirsty, and I loved the story's utilization of the defunct Devil's Island prison as a gateway to The Wastes. That said, the story seemed a bit rushed and under realized, and I could have done with a more fleshed out Pinhead (pun intended), not the mostly perfunctory one we receive instead.

Either way, Barker's The Scarlet Gospels looms on my horizon. First though, I once again find myself in the mood for a Halloween-timed re-read of Bret Easton Ellis' Lunar Park.

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Playlist:

We're in full Autumnal musical territory now:

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine 

Joy Division - Still 

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field 

The Final Cut - Consumed

Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1

Naked Raygun - Raygun... Naked Raygun 

Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park 

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Card:

The watery aspect of fire, or the ability (and experience) to know when to temper intellect with emotion. Also, clear insights and the fresh perspective of adopting the perspective of another and cutting your own head off long enough to truly experience that other perspective. 

King Volcano is Here

 

It's about time I brought out the Bauhaus. Of course, it hasn't been easy getting into a Halloween state of mind with the heat wave in LA, however, it appears *fingercrossedfingerscrossed* to have broken. 80? 75? I'll take it. Especially with the sun setting noticeably earlier now. So yeah, King Volcano is here...

In the course of posting this song, I came to realize that neither Burning From the Inside, nor The Sky's Gone Out are on streaming platforms at the moment. This leads me to believe there may be a rights struggle between Murphy and the rest of the band. Interesting...

Also of interest, I randomly found that two days ago, Crippled Black Phoenix released a cover version of "She's in Parties", the first Bauhaus song I ever heard and the one that made me an immediate fan.

 

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31 Days of Halloween:

Last night's viewing was a classic, 80s Horror flick:

Well, classic to me. I'm not sure why I have such a soft spot for this one. I definitely love the set design and the lighting. I especially love the outdoor sets, like the cinema and it's "Continuous Horror Marathon All Seats $1.99" marquee, or the street in front of Dante's Shuffleboard and the pay phone next to it. Hell, I just love that there's a business called Dante's Shuffleboard. Also, being that Robert Englund made his directorial debut here, the movie definitely borrows from A Nightmare on Elm Street's dream sequences. The scene where Hoax confronts Spike in the boys locker room looks awesome with its bluish-green fog. Ridiculous for a locker room, but cool nonetheless. 

So, after watching the original 976-Evil for the umpteenth time, I checked around and found that the sequel from 1992 is currently free with Prime. I've never seen this, and was delighted to find that with Englund gone, the studio hired Jim Wynorski of Chopping Mall fame to helm the continuation of the story. Alas, I was only able to watch the first fifteen minutes or so before falling asleep, however, I'll definitely be revisiting this one over the weekend.

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper

Dance with the Dead - Loved to Death

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets

Joy Division - Still

Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

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Card:

Hmmm... my previous pull from this deck came back with the same card. 

October 8: Type O Negative - Creepy Green Light

 

Although I'd been teasing it for a few days, yesterday I finally fell down the Type O Negative well. It felt GREAT. I swear, I'm not one to say that any one band is 'my favorite band,' but if there's a band that fits 'me' best, it's most likley Type O. I miss them intensely. 

I'll take this opportunity to mention that I've dropped the 'Isolation' title from the blog because between two outings to the Drive-In with Ray, the hotel we stayed in after Saturday's Lynch Triple feature (terrifying - imagine 100+ weather and a courtyard with a pool thronged with people, roving packs of maskless children, etc. Fucking petri dish), and visiting Butcher and his family, the isolation phase has been broken and, even if I remain isolated again going forward, that particular spell is broken. I'm still undecided if I will change the name of the blog again. We'll see.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

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Soon:

 

Chalk this one up to something I just heard mentioned on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast but never actually thought would be made. Via the mighty Bloody Disgusting, Tim Hunter - who is listed here as "a director of Breaking Bad" and, while that is accurate, a Director I have loved since I saw his 1986 flick River's Edge, which, like Smiley Face Killers, stares Crispin Glover, another total draw for me. Hunter has mostly done TV through the years, but its been a lot of the stuff I like. Back in high school, when I first saw River's Edge, his name was already known to me by way of the three stellar episodes of Twin Peaks Season Two he directed. From there, the list includes a lot, but specific to my viewing, Deadwood, AHS, and yes, Breaking Bad. Anyway, this trailer isn't blowing me away, but I'll definitely be checking this one out on VOD come December 8th, just to support it. 

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Playlist:

Death  Individual Thought Patterns

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Deftones - Ohms

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

Type O Negative - October Rust

Type O Negative - The Origin of the Feces

Type O Negative - Dead Again

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II

Kevin Ayers - The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories

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Card:

Perhaps a little bit of interior harmony as I (hopefully) head in to a mellower day at the Biorepository and have begun working on the book again, Writer's Block be damned. (It's not Writer's Block, it's exhaustion).

RIP Eddie Van Halen

 

I'm not really a Van Halen fan, and as revolutionary as Eddie Van Halen's guitar style was at the time Van Halen's eponymous debut hit the world, he really just played 'Eruption' over and over for the rest of his career. That's not exactly true, but it's not exactly wrong, either. Doesn't matter: first rock album I ever owned was 1984, and I've loved it ever since. The singles are all gold, but the deep cuts are infinitely better, imo. I almost posted Drop Dead Legs here, but instead I went with Top Jimmy just because I think the intro guitar is some of the most under-stated playing EVH ever did, and that makes it even more awesome. If there's a stage in Heaven, Eddie's gonna take a turn.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I've been flim-flamming between calling this segment "31 Days of Horror" and "31 Days of Halloween," but I think I'm going to finally settle on the latter, simply because my activities of the last few days have put me in situations where my entries for the day skew outside the realm of Horror. My definition Horror is definitely open to a lot of interpretation, but I feel like I'm really pushing the envelope including Mulholland Drive and Synchronic. So Halloween works a lot better this year.

Monday night, my Horror Vision co-host Ray and I hit our final night of Beyondfest 2020 programming at the Mission Tiki Drive-In with the West Coast Premiere of the looong-awaited new film from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Synchronic is everything I thought it would be and more, but it also surprised me. These guys are great filmmakers who will no doubt become Nolan-level in time, and I feel privileged to have now seen the film that I believe will bridge the 'Independent' era of their career with what comes next.

 

 

Also, Monday night was a double-feature, and Ray and I were also lucky enough to catch the premiere of Justin Simien's new film Bad Hair:       

Bad Hair premieres on HULU on October 23rd, and it's a damn good time. If you look up in the right hand corner of this page, you'll see my little Spotify widget has updated with our quick-take, spoiler-free review of both these films.

Finally, last night K and I sat down to watch a flick she's been wanting me to see for a few months now, ever since it popped up on Prime. And what I realized once the film began is, even though I'd been seeing the VHS cover art since I was a little kid, I had completely missed or forgotten that Dolls is a Stuart Gordon film! This, of course, won me over immediately, as did the film, which is excellent in that 'the storm forced us to knock on the door of the creepy old mansion and now we're all being picked off one by one' way that keeps coming up lately, whether it be in Dolls, April Fool's Day, or Clue, all excellent films in my humble opinion. Also, I'm really making an attempt to watch some new stuff this year, instead of just filling the month with my standard October films. This and The Wolf Man were good starts in that direction.

1) The Wolf Man

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

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Playlist:

Deftones - Ohms

The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once

Mastodon - Leviathan

Ainoma - Necropolis

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Van Halen - 1984

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

Fear Factory - Demanufacture

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Card:

Cause and Effect: I've been unable to right for about a week, and my self-esteem is in the toilet. Go figure.