Showing posts with label Blasphemous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blasphemous. Show all posts

Monday, November 20, 2023

One For the Ages

 
One of the folks I follow on a certain social media app is Vinylchucks. I love this man's posts because, although our tastes don't completely align, he is very well-spoken and reminds me about a lot of music that I tend to forget. 

Case in point - I was always a HUGE fan of U2's War and, to a steadily decreasing degree their subsequent 80s records, but where 1991's Achtung Baby was the death knell for many old-school fans of the band, I thought it was a masterful cocoon from which an entirely new band emerged. Unfortunately, I don't really care for anything else that 'new' band did (subsequent records have their moments for me, but they are sparse, to say the least), but nothing can ever take away what this record and perhaps most specifically this song did for a fifteen-year-old stoner slowly getting into a much wider musical world.




Watch:

If you didn't know it, a new Bobby Fingers video went up last week. As usual, it brings me joy on a level nothing else on the internet could ever hope to match.

As a Patron, I was able to view this three days ahead of the wide release, along with a secondary Patron-only video that shows him making the eyes for this absolute monstrosity!  This is the most talented person online right now, folks, and I'm proud to have contributed funds to the making of this.




Play:

With the very sparse time I have in my life for gaming, I'm still hovering at what I think is the final stage of Torture Star/Puppet Combo's Night At the Gates of Hell. I love this game, and I'm learning that the games Torture Star for the Puppet Combo banner are my favorite. Add to this my immovable position at 80% through the Pilgrimage of the first Blasphemous game, and I don't really have time for anything new on Switch. That's fine because I'd rather wait until the new Horror Metroidvania The Last Faith goes on sale before I buy it anyway. 

But oh yes, I will be buying it.



This definitely looks like they 'skinned' Blasphemous, but I don't care. Talk about some stellar imagery! My cohost on The Horror Vision, Butcher, was one of the original backers of the Kickstarter campaign for this, so he's already playing. Butcher reports the game play is taking some getting used to, as it is closer to Castlevania than Blasphemous, but like me, he's a sucker for this type of game and its nightmarish, Horror imagery.




Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Helmet - Left
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
The Reverend Horton Heat - Whole New Life
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
Deftones - Ohms
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Slaughter On First Avenue
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete
André 3000 - New Blue Sun
Rodney Crowell - Triage
Aerosmith - Same Old Song and Dance (single)




Card:

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


• Six of Swords - Balancing Relationships
• Five of Pentacles - Earthly Conflict
• Ten of Pentacles - Ending an Earthly Concern

There are a few interpretations today's cards indicate, but chief among them is an ending to the big issue in my life at the moment - moving my parents from Chicago down to Tennessee by us. I have earnest money to drop off this week on their behalf; however, a last-minute delay in closing their house's sale has everyone in the family on edge. While I remain optimistic, this is really messing with my folks, as the purchase of the house they found down here is contingent on the sale of their house (contingent on a final inspection for radon and termites, as well, but let's cross one bridge at a time, eh?). The spread above makes me think I need to trust in my optimism. 

Monday, November 7, 2022

In the Mist

 

A little old-school Opeth to kick off the week. From their 1995 debut Orchid.

I spent more time last week listening to the newer Opeth albums than I ever have before, and still, nothing after Watershed really sticks with me. I wasn't a fan back when these early, Candlelight/Century Black records came out; I didn't buy my first Opeth album until the early oughts (Deliverance), and I didn't become what I would call a huge fan until shortly before the aforementioned Watershed, an album I never really connected with either, until last week. Watershed has its moments, but previously only ever served to make me miss the band that recorded the albums before it that I like. My circuitous point here is I can't claim the same prejudice against the band's conversion to prog-rock that older fans do, who witnessed the evolution as each successive record came out, but like many others, I miss the teeth from the band's early and even mid-career music.

So I'm pulling out the triple-disc rerelease those first three records received in the mid-00s and digging in. 




Play:

I hadn't really picked up my Switch to continue my pilgrimage in Game Kitchen's Blasphemous in some time, so Sunday I spent a good deal of time on it while editing the 100th episode of The Horror Vision. I made quite a bit of progress, and am now approximately 93% finished. Lots of surprises in this game, which so reminds me of Castlevania and, in some ways more so, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. The most unexpected event I encountered so far is a hidden room that houses an arcade game, which you have the option to play. Here's a playthrough video from youtube Psychobeats, link to their channel HERE.


Very cool stuff. I can't wait to see what else this game has in store for me. For now, I'm trapped battling my way through "Mourning and Havoc" one of the more difficult levels I've encountered in the game.




Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous
John Carpenter - Alive After Death
The Besnard Lakes - The Last of the Great Storm Warnings
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School  of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done
Lustmord and The Ocean - Primal (State of Being) (Single)
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
The Final Cut - Consumed
Miami Nights 1984 - Sentimental
Sade - Loe Deluxe
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man
Thelonious Monk W/ John Coltrane - Eponymous
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
Cory Wong - Power Station
Orville Peck - Pony
Orville Peck - Bronco
Ghost - Impera
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Tim Waits - Rain Dogs




Card:





Friday, March 25, 2022

A Blasphemous Nun Massacre at the Hexie Mountains!

 

A new video from Orville Peck's recently released Bronco, Chapter 1. I can't wait for the entire album to land and my vinyl to arrive. If you haven't already, you can scoot on over HERE to pick one up for yourself.




Watch:

Despite working slightly more than a full day yesterday, I had a pretty damn good 46th birthday. Nothing fancy. Homemade burgers and Demons 2 kicked things off, as I picked up that stunning Synapse Films double feature of Lamberto Bava's two Demons films back when it came out a year or two ago, and still hadn't set eyes on their transfer of the sequel.

 

Ironic that I could only find Arrow Video's trailer for their restoration of the film, but whatever. The Synapse transfer is gorgeous, and I'm quite happy with everything about it.

Later, to end my night, I threw on one of my recent favorites - Joe Begos' VFW. It'd been a minute since I'd seen this one, but I feel like all the beats are seared into my head thanks to that one magnificent Beyondfest double feature back in 2019. 


I love this flick so damn much. Both this and Begos' Bliss are films I feel like I could watch every day. In lieu of that, I tend to just toss them on when I can, to re-experience not just the film, but that glorious final Beyondfest at the Egyptian, my favorite place in LaLaLand, now owned by Netflix.




Play:

Not only did my Nintendo Switch arrive yesterday, but I was able to pick up Puppet Combo's Nun Massacre from the online game store!

 

The game, like Glass Staircase before it - which I'd bought on my Mac a few years ago and quickly gave up on without a controller - is a bit difficult to get used to for someone who hasn't ever really played 360, immersive games, but very well worth the pangs of the learning curve. The atmosphere is stellar, and when the titular Nun takes to stabbing you to death, things get pretty intense. Definitely recommended for anyone who digs Horror and Games. Reminds me a bit of my all-time favorite Video Game, Shadow Gate, which still influences my personality endlessly, despite not having played it in decades at this point.

Despite all this love I'm heaping on Nun Massacre, however, it was another game I picked up at the same time that I spent the most time with. Thanks to a recommendation by my Horror Vision cohost King Butcher, I grabbed Game Kitchen's Blasphemous:


The image of that giant baby with its eyes stabbed out, held by a monster as it tears a person limb from limb sealed the deal. This is some insane shit, and I'm absolutely in love with this game, which was obviously designed by a bunch of Metal Head Stoners (my people) who were very much influenced by the Castlevania series, which, back when I played video games on the original NES system, was a favorite (especially part 2: Simon's Quest).




Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Blut Aus Nord - That Cannot Be Dreamed
Drug Church - Hygiene
Quicksand - Slip 
White Lung - Paradise
Every Day (is Halloween) Playlist (Reveal in upcoming April 4th Edition of the newsletter)




Card:

Back to my Thoth mini. My intention was a three-card spread, however, this card literally jumped out of the deck at me:


A solid foundation to build from takes good, strong effort and clear thinking. Pertinent, as we just had another phone conversation with our Tennessee realtor. Things are moving forward, and I'll post more about it here when our machinations fully lock into place.