My Ten Favorite Albums of 2024

This list isn't to say I don't have more than ten favorite albums in 2024 because this year has been chocked full of great music. Maybe I'm just more in tune or something; I don't know. A couple years ago, I remember doing this list and saying up front that I felt like I spent way more time listening to older music. Not this year; I could barely keep up, and every time I thought I had this list finished, something else came my way and made me rethink everything. Here then, is perhaps the most tentative top-ten list I've done since 2013, when I kind of bitched out and did eleven. 

Note: I did away with the numbering because the order is interchangeable and impossible to commit to. That said, Numbers one and two are definitely my favorite albums of the year.

• Zeal and Ardor - GREIF

The first Zeal and Ardor record written by the band, not just founder Manuel Gagneux, and it's fantastic. Very different from previous albums, but that's the thing that impresses me the most about this band - the evolution. From a mission statement that would have worn out its welcome in the hands of most others, Manuel has shepherded this project to new heights, and there's never a moment I'm not 100% enthralled. 

Buy HERE.

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• Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Another left-hand turn from Ms. Wolfe! There are moments on this record that remind me of mid-90s trip-hop, a la Poe's first record. There are also moments where I feel the dark echo chamber of Chelsea Wolfe's mind, and it continues to draw me into her strange, Stoner-brand Desert Psyche Rock. There's something so expressive about every aspect of the music Ms. Wolfe creates - I'm literally transported into what feels like a very clearly defined psychic space, each album its own specific time and place. Her world only briefly syncs up with the 'real,' which makes listening feel like I am literally catching onto pieces of her consciousness. It feels intimate and a little scary at times, like a lot of the best music does. 

Buy HERE.

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• Shellac - To All Trains

Yeah, like the final Shellac album wasn't going to be on this list. I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of the band's previous record, and this one... shit, I've had a lot of internal trouble accepting this record simply because it's release dovetailed with the death of one of the most important persons in modern music. A Chicago native, like myself, and what's more, one of the last bastions of integrity turned up to eleven, Steve Albini. But Shellac's character is something etched into me across the divide since 2000's Thousand Hurts, the first Shellac record I bought and fell deeply in love with. The cynicism, the in-jokes that long-time listeners fall in on simply by having gotten to know these strange men who play jagged, angular analog indie rock with fists... it's all just such a pleasure, and I will miss it for the rest of my days.

Buy HERE.

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• Moon Wizard - Sirens

I love this record! I had never heard of Moon Wizard before Sirens was released somewhere in the first few months of the year, but this one has been a constant companion ever since. This four-piece writes and plays this blissfully melodic sludge that feels extremely well-defined for such a relatively young band. The melodic strains of lead singer Sami Wolf's voice are perfectly matched by  Aaron Brancheau's guitar, whose riffs and arranging go from soaring emotional heights to "bash your fucking head in" even while wielding the spry, haunting melodies strewn across the runtime of this record. Magnolia is a forever song for me, burned into my brain upon contact and perhaps matched only by Luminaire's ghostly ability to snare the very breath from my lungs. 

Buy HERE.

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• The Cure - Songs For A Lost World

Talk about a late entry. As much as I am an eternal fan of The Cure's albums Pornography and Disintegration, I haven't really kept up with anything they've done since the late 90s. Even the other 80s/90s albums stay on the outskirts of my heart. I love Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Head on the Door, et al, but none of them are essential to my being the way the other two are. Then they release Songs For A Lost World, and Whammo! Another complete emotional sledgehammer! This is what I feel The Cure does best. 

Both aforementioned previous albums destroyed me at different stages of my life, shattered me, and eventually put me back together. That's exactly what Songs For A Lost World promises; I'm just too emotionally defensive at the moment to allow it full access. You get it from the album's title, yeah? This fucker's poignant, especially when you consider it was released back in late October, right before... well, you know. 

Upon first listen, every tune, every melody seemed instantly ingrained in me, so that upon each subsequent early listen, I felt I already knew every song by heart. These songs hurt, though. Maybe it's the times, maybe it's the fact that I came out of the first months of 2024 actively acknowledging that we now live in a dystopian future, but this album just feels like what the world needs to, well, go out on.

Buy HERE.

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• Amigo The Devil - Yours Until the War Is Over

The album whose title I misquoted the most this year, Amigo the Devil has been increasingly endeared to me for a few years now, and I have my very good friend Mr. Brown to thank for that. The post-modern Singer/Songwriter tradition I fell in love with through Nick Cave and Tom Waits is alive and well in this man, as he balances the delicate and diabolical sides of his own existence against an ever-evolving tableau of scenarios that the most debaucherous of us can only shake out heads and say, "Goddamn, I'd like to buy this man a beer."

Buy HERE.

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• Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Full disclosure, since this record was released in March, Justin has come to be a friend of mine. He's guested on The Horror Vision twice this year; however, before the release of his score for a non-existent Giallo, I only knew him as a person I followed on IG. One I wasn't entirely sure how I discovered in the first place. We were obviously like-minded mutants, but when I saw him begin to post about this album, I knew it was going to be a huge record for me. Coincidentally, I spent the year writing a Giallo novel, and this record immediately slipped into place as a constant soundtrack for those sessions. It colored many key scenes in the book and put me in that very specific Giallo tone, which isn't exactly easy to do for the first time invoking it with prose.

Buy HERE.

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• Oranssi Pazzuzu - Muuntautuja

Oranssi Pazuzu's Muuntautuja is the first record the band has released since I became a fan. I'm still not familiar with their entire body of work to date; it was late last year that the members of Baroness put this band on my radar by way of their "What's in My Bag?" on the Amoeba Music YouTube channel, but the moment I hit play on their Live At Roadburn album from 2017, I was hooked. I suppose their off-kilter approach to psychedelic Black Metal scratches the same itch for me that Blut Aus Nord does; the songs are all cohesive but unlike anything I've ever heard before. This was especially true the first time I hit PLAY on the track "Valotus". It was late; I was buzzed, had headphones on, and didn't quite understand what exactly I was listening to. It was music, yes, but there was such a "Cosmic Occult" element to the sounds and arranging that I wasn't sure how most of what I was hearing was being made or orchestrated. I knew at that exact moment this would be an album that would earn my devotion by confounding me, by pushing the boundaries of what I like and listen to and comprehend about music. 

Buy HERE.

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• Drug Church - Prude

I was only really familiar with Patrick Kindlon's name as one of the two writers on We Can Never Go Home, the comic/graphic novel released by Black Mask Comics back in 2014. After that, I followed him through a few more series, not realizing this band I started hearing about counted him as singer. When my good friend Jacob recommended 2022's Hygiene that year, it slowly became a go-to, and as it did, my research revealed Kindlon's involvement. Which, of course, only made me love Drug Church more. Now, with Prude, I can honestly say Kindlon's lyrics are among my favorites out there at the moment. Lyrics aren't something I adhere to easily; I like a lot of music where I couldn't sing along if I tried. But Prude is sharp and astute from the jump, and every track kicks ass musically, as well. 

Buy HERE.

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• Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES

I don't know how Uncle Al keeps doing it, but Ministry continues to not just be relevant ideologically, but musically as well. Goddamn, if this isn't my favorite album of theirs since 2008's The Last Sucker. The samples are spot-on, the lyrics angry but (mostly) thought-provoking, and the songs blaze a path from track one through to the end, with penultimate track "Cult of Suffering" and its guest vocals by Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hütz weighing in as my favorite song of the year. 

Buy HERE.

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There you go. Seriously though, I could easily make a second top ten for the year. So many albums this year! Here's to what's coming in 2025!!!

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New Music from Chelsea Wolfe!

New music from Chelsea Wolfe, and it reminds me that I sort of forgot about She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, released a few months ago. This woman is such a prolific artist; very inspiring. You can pre-order the new E.P. HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Woke up super early yesterday and caught Nico van den Brink's 2022 film Moloch from the beginning on Shudder TV. Solid modern Folk Horror flick from XYZ Films. Here's a trailer that's not too revealing:

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1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77, DVD)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

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NCBD:

Short list this week, and two of these books may be delayed. Let's take a look:

How many times have issues of The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution been delayed? Hell, I'm not even sure anymore. I love this world and this book, so I'll take it when they give it, and honestly, a production on this level is worth the wait. 

Opting for the "B" cover on this final issue of Destro. The Energon Universe party is kind of over; I mean, it's still great, but as Mike Shinabargar and I have discussed on Drinking with Comics quite a bit the last few months, that initial excitement of introducing G.I. Joe into the mix crested with the Cobra Commander and Duke mini-series. Destro has been great, but with everything winding down toward one monthly book, well, something feels flattened.

There's really no way to even begin to discuss this book in any small way. Department of Truth is so much more effective a series read in trade; however, after catching up on the series with the first four volumes, there's just no way I can wait for it to be collected. 

Or can I?

This is the one I am most excited about this week, and it's also the one I've heard has been pushed back. DC, please get this one out before Halloween! Maybe it's Shinabargar's influence, but I've been digging some of these one-off Bat-books lately, and at a tight, three-issue duration, this Batman fights a Werewolf looks pretty rad.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Barry Adamson - Cut to Black

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Vinyl)

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Walter Rizati - House By the Cemetery OST

Goblin - Suspiria OST

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

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Card:

Today's card is V: The Hierophant.

The initial notes I made for this card, long ago when I began the Grimoire, reads: "Something more (Divine???) that guides life along its course." 

The Prime Mover. This does not have to be a religious interpretation—mine certainly isn't—but it can be. In reality, this can be any "higher" power imparting knowledge, even if it's just someone smarter or more versed than you. 

Crowley floods the card with extra meaning. The bull, the elephants, Horus. It all boils down to the ultimate template for the Magickal working: United the microcosm with the macrocosm, itself a reference to our study and how it seeks to draw upon the aforementioned Prime Mover.  

Second Song Second Time Around

 

Yesterday, I began my day with some TV on the Radio. Man, I miss these guys. Technically, I don't think they ever actually broke up; however, their most recent record, Seeds, came out a decade ago now, and their hiatus has lasted just about as long. 

Mr. Brown recently pointed out that the new Chelsea Wolfe album I've been spinning so much was produced by TVOTR's Dave Sitek, so maybe that's why I've been thinking of them lately. 

Interestingly enough, Sitek also produced Scarlett Johansson's 2008 album of Tom Waits' covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head. I remember having an advance copy of that back when it came out, but I don't remember a single thing about what the record actually sounds like.

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Watch:

Kimo Stamboel's new film Dancing Village: The Curse Begins recently received a trailer. The only film I know by Stamboel is 2019's The Queen of Black Magic, but it's a f**king DOOZY to say the least. 

I watched about half of this trailer and am totally in. There's something so visceral about Stamboel's work. Some of it's the setting—the way he uses the jungle—I can almost feel the humidity and discomfort, the dirt and insects. But there's also an almost Body Horror element to some of his kills. They really leave an impression. 

The idea that this will be in selected theatres - I'd imagine I have almost no hope of seeing this in Clarksville, but then again, I've been surprised a lot lately by what's come through my town. So we'll see. 

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Playlist:

TVOTR - Nine Types of Light

TVOTR - Dead Science

TVOTR - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Deftones - Gore

Ministry - Hopiumforthemasses

Adam Kesher - Eponymous

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby

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Card:

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

• Three of Swords

• Six of Cups

• Queen of Pentacles

Turbulence, Pleasure and Fertility, which sounds like another way of saying from Chaos comes opportunity.

Chelsea Wolfe - The Liminal

 

My copy of Chelsea Wolfe's She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She arrived on Saturday and I managed to hold off listening to it until the precise criteria I insisted upon were met - Saturday night after recording the latest episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Murderboad - A True Detective Night Country Discussion, I placed the beautiful colored vinyl on the turntable in my office, smoked a quarter of a joint and laid out on the floor and let the sounds wash over me. This one's an immediate shoo-in for my top ten list this year. It's both similar and completely unlike anything Ms. Wolfe has done previously; similar, because her voice is unmistakable; different in that there are a lot of what I can only call "Industrial Trip-Hop" elements in these songs. 

I know, I know... it's not bad enough we subdivide music into oft-confusing subgenres, but now you're creating hybrids of those subgenres? Well... there's just no other way to say it. 

Industrial is appropriate because alot of the songs have a mechanical feeling to their percussion or groove, Trip Hop because the closest thing I can compare of the arranging on this album to is Portishead or Massive Attack. I can split hairs all day long on the sound, but believe me, this is a spectacular piece of work from one of the most interesting artists working in music.

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Watch:

I had the revelatory experience of watching Jennifer Reeder's 2019 Knives and Skin on Saturday night. Here's a trailer that I have vetted; it gives nothing away (also doesn't do this film any kind of justice, but you really can't encapsulate Knives and Skin in a trailer anymore than you can a Lynch film):

Ms. Reeder has been slowly moving up my radar ever since I watched 2020's Night's End hit Shudder back in the fall of 2022. I posted about her most recent film Perpetrator a few weeks ago, and that viewing, combined with this latest one, seals the deal: she's easily my latest "favorite directors." There's a moment in this trailer where the pull quote says, "Twin Peaks meets Donnie Darko." That's not exactly right, but it's not exactly wrong, either, and it's close enough to tell you why I like it so much and whether or not you have any hope of connecting with it. All I can say is K and I were absolutely mesmerized while watching.

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Playlist:

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

David Bowie - Black Star

David Bowie - The Next Day

David Bowie - Outside

David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

Turnstile - Glow On

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette (single)

Daemien Frost - Corpus Demo

Donny Benét - Konichiwa (single)

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

The Veils - Total Depravity

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Card:

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

• VIII: Strength

• Four of Pentacles

• Knight of Wands

A lot of strength and foundation, which I feel like has been under assault in our house the last few days. Took K to the emergency room on Thursday night around midnight (she's fine), took our cat Sweetie to the pet urgent care on Saturday (we think she's fine), and something popped in my right knee that has left me in intermittent crippling pain since Saturday morning. All this, juxtaposed with this Pull, tells me we need to finally ante up and put our health back into the actively attending to column.

New Music From Chelsea Wolfe

More new Chelsea Wolfe, from the upcoming album She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, out February 9; pre-order HERE. This close to the release date, I'm not even going to listen to this single. I pre-ordered the vinyl and am waiting to sit down and listen start to finish, ripped to the gilly tits on marijuana. Been a while since I've observed that ritual for a new album, would like to get back to it. This seems like a fantastic place to start. 

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Watch:

I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon this last night, but after seeing the trailer and not being able to find anything on IMDB, I realized there was a link to the full film:

I know nothing of El Maestro, however, the trailer for A24's The Grind is equally one of the most beautiful and disturbing things I've seen in a while, so no doubt I'm watching this as soon as I can.

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Playlist:

Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground

The Damned - Evil Spirits

Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love You, Delete

The Trapezoid - Reverb Nation Playlist

Various Mixed by DJ IF: Darkness Exhalation Mix Vol. 2

The Neighborhood - I Love You

FACS - Still Life in Decay

Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy (Single)

The Pixies - Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf - Single)

Grand Duchy - Black Suit (Single)

AFI - This Time Imperfect (Single)

The Bronx - V

The Bronx - Dead Tracks

The Bronx - IV

Tar - Clincher

The Trapezoid - Reverb Nation Playlist

Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1

Nobuhiko Morino - Verses: The Album

The Soft Moon - Eponymous

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Card:

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

• Queen of Swords 

• III: The Empress

• XV: The Devil

Just recording this here for posterity; will hopefully be able to double back later in the day for interpretation. 

Chelsea Wolfe

 

I'm a bit late to the game on the second track to be released from Chelsea Wolfe's upcoming album She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, out February 9th (pre-order HERE). I'd listened right after it dropped, but in keeping with my practice, for artists like Ms. Wolfe, I will listen to pre-release tracks, but not overly so. I'm way more interested in preserving the experience of the full album. Anyway, I ended up watching this video twice last night - the photography herein is a complete visual level-up for what she's doing. Written, Directed, Shot and Cut by George Gallardo Kattah, I had to look this guy up; however, there's not a lot out there. Mr. Kattah, to take nothing away from your accomplishments to date (his portfolio can be found HERE), you will do wonderful things, sir. I'm still just absolutely blown away by this video.

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NCBD:

Here's my Pull for this week:

I've still only read the first issue of Jeff Lemire's Fishflies, but I'm definitely in for the entire series, whether that's simply through the fourth and final issue solicited thus far or beyond. A special magick occurs when the writer is also the artist, and Lemire's style is unlike anyone I've ever seen. 

Okay, let's see what this Cult of Mephisto is all about. I've stated here previously that I'm really hoping for something that rivals Mike Baron and Klaus Janson's take on the Jonestown cult waaaay back in original Punisher series numbers four and five. We'll see.

The finale to Louise Simonson's Jean Grey series. A nice, tight, four-issue romp through the character's past and, presumably, future. 

Totally on the fence with this one. I know nothing about it, and although I've become a huge Tynion fan over the previous year, I don't read everything he does. That said, two things will most likely sway me to grab this. 1) the artist on the book is Joshua Hixson, who also did Vault Comics' The Plot a few years ago. That book was good enough to endear the entire creative team to me forever. 2) This is another three-issue series, much like The Closet, which I loved.

One more to go after this. Still standing by my predictions for Captain Krakoa, although I don't think we're getting that answer until issue five.

Love this cover. 

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Watch:

A quick, behind-the-scenes video of David Fincher's The Killer? Yes, please.

I imagine I'll probably be talking about this one for quite some time; I actually re-watched it already last night, and it was even better the second time. I guess one of the major things that I like about The Killer is that, I'd all but given up hope on Fincher making a 'fun' movie ever again. Mank, Gone Girl, Benjamin Button, I suppose they're all fine, well-crafted films even if I can't remember nearly anything about them, but The Killer feels more akin to his early work. Fight Club, The Game, Se7en (wouldn't necessarily call that last one 'fun') - these are all ingrained in my psyche. For the last two decades or so, other than the Netflix stuff he's known to Produce but not direct (Sex, Death and Robots; Mindhunter), David Fincher's work had become the cinematic equivalent of fine china for me. You watch with extreme attention to detail, then carefully place on a shelf and never touch again. Not this one. I could watch The Killer again tonight.

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Playlist:

Tyler Bates & Chelsea Wolfe - X OST

Cartoonist Kayfabe - November 14, 2023

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

Gazelle Twin - The Entire City

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper

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Card:

From Aleister Crowley and Lady Freida Harris' Thoth Deck:

• Five of Cups - Debauch

• Prince of Wands

• Ten of Cups - Saiety

Drive will disappoint us, but still somehow end up fulfilling us in the end. Not sure what exactly that has to say about my current situation, although, now that I've typed those words, it occurs to me that I've been writing every day and haven't really felt like I'm making progress. Which, of course, is wrong. You're always making progress if you're working on the project. 

New Music from Chelsea Wolfe

It's unclear at this point if this new single is a harbinger for a new full-length Chelsea Wolfe album, but any new Chelsea Wolfe is fine by me.  

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Watch:

One of the features my friends and I scored tickets to for this year's Beyondfest is V/H/S/85. Here's the trailer:

While I've made no bones about the fact that I find these anthology series a mixed bag at best, to quote Nick Chaney from the Projexploitation Podcast, "Like it or not, I'm on its side." I love that these exist, and I actually became fairly excited for this entry when I saw that Gigi Saul Guerrero, David Bruckner and Scott Derrickson are among the Directors attached. 

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Playlist:

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Baroness - Stone

bunsenburner - Rituals

Bluekarma - The Friction, the Pain

Stuck - Freak Frequency

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Godflesh - Purge

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Twin Peaks: Season Two

Angelo Badalmenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST

Various - Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series OST

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)

Joseph LoDuca - Evil Dead 2 OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.  Just a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter right now. Here's the LINK.

• Knight of Cups

• Nine of Swords

• Ace of Cups

Pretty straightforward this morning: quite your bellyaching, toughen up and get on with it. I'm feeling a bit morose about heading out this afternoon for two-and-a-half weeks away from home. I'll be working in LaLaLand for most of that time, and despite being able to see my friends there and attending Beyondfest, a large part of me just doesn't want to go. I'll miss K, I'll miss our two cats and I'll miss our home. The cards remind me instantly that Pattern Interrupts are always good things, and I will return stronger than when I left. 

Mark Lanegan and Chelsea Wolfe - Flatlands

 

I had to get one more Lanegan track in, because I don't think I'd ever realized he had a collaborattion with Chelsea Wolfe before.  

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NCBD:

Here's my haul for another NCBD:

Again with the fantastic cover for Moon Knight. 

I might have missed picking up issue #3 of Newburn, so I'll have to remedy that as well.

James Tynion IV's The Nice House On The Lake returns after a small hiatus. This one has a lot that feels like it's being lost to me reading it as it drops, but I may make 

Hands down, the best cover of any X-Book since Powers/House. This is currently the only of the X-titles that I'm reading that still feels like Hickman's run, and this cover proves that 100%. 

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Playlist:

The Gutter Twins - Adorata

Wham! - Everything She Wants (single)

George Michael - Faith

The Veils - Total Depravity

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads

Zombi - Digitalis

Author & Punisher - Women & Children

Yeruselem - The Sublime

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Card:

Sevens are Netzach, and thus related to Strength. Which I feel like I've been pretty keen on exhibiting of late. Also, in Thoth, I tend to see this card as an indication that one idea will stand out among others, and prove itself useful if followed. Which helps with the current state of my writing, which is a big mess of peaks and valleys at the moment. Too many ideas, is kind of what I was thinking an hour or so before I pulled this one, so I'll take the advice.

Blood Dawn

I had completely forgotten the Chelsea Wolfe/Converge collab album Bloodmoon: I dropped a few weeks back. Thankfully, Heaven is an Incubator just released his Top Twenty-Five records of 2021 and this was on it, reminding me to strap on the ear goggles and disappear into a place both wonderful and strange.

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Watch:

After five episodes, I can absolutely assure you that Showtime's new series Yellowjackets is on the shortlist for my favorite shows of the year. It's not going to beat out Brand New Cherry Flavor, but I almost feel like I should remove that one from the running - it's unbeatable.

 

Yellowjackets seems to be on track to come pretty close, though. This show has me chomping at the bit for each successive episode, which drop weekly on Sundays.

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Playlist:

Van Halen - 1984

White Lung - Paradise

White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000

Deftones - Ohms 

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Godflesh - Streetcleaner

Blut Aus Nord - Codex Obscura Nomina

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Møl - Diorama

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Card:

The Airy aspect of Earth - note the bull and its rider, often interpreted as an 'energetic young man.' I have to wonder if there's a message there, or if the cards are mocking me this morning. I'm still struggling with a total lack of energy and the subsequent feelings that, at nearly 46, I'm just getting tired and old. Part of me reads that and immediately says, "Fuck you," to the part of myself that thinks that, and part of me wonders. 

Recently, I've traced the start of this constant feeling of exhaustion to two things: 1) the loss of most of my staff at work, which means all my managerial duties take a backseat to near-constant physical work. None of this is super demanding work, but it's continuous over the course of several sustained hours. Add this to my penchant for only sleeping a little over five hours a night (most nights, with after-work naps increasing in frequency), and there's a definite factor. However, 2) I also can't ignore that the start of this exhaustion appears to match up with my relatively newfound love of fasting. I do 13-16 hour fasts almost every day, and while this almost completely alleviates the stomach issues I've had for most of my life, I also can't help but wonder if it's a contributing factor. 

The good news is we're on a hiring kick at work, so hopefully, this will soon put me back in a place where I don't burn all my energy for the day by noon. I'm not the kind of manager who likes sitting at a desk for my entire day, but eight or nine hours of near-continuous physical strain sure as hell isn't doing me any good.

We'll see. 

Chelsea Wolfe - Diana

 

Any day we get a new Chelsea Wolfe track is a good day. This one is in conjunction with DC Comics and the Dark Knights: Death Metal series they're doing that I know absolutely nothing about except that I couldn't care less about it. Except, now I love this song. So that's one thing Dark Knights: Death Metal has going for it. DC is releasing a full soundtrack for the series, which, if you're of a mind, you can pre-order in whatever format you like HERE. Tracklisting below: 

Mastodon - Forged by Neron 

Chelsea Wolfe - Diana 

HEALTH, Tyler Bates - ANTI-LIFE (feat. Chino Moreno) Maria Brink, Tyler Bates - Meet Me In Fire (feat. Andy Biersack) 

Grey Daze - Anything, Anything 

Rise Against - Broken Dreams, Inc. 

Manchester Orchestra - Never Ending 

Denzel Curry, PlayThatBoiZay - Bad Luck Carach 

Angren - Skull With a Forked Tongue 

Starcrawler - Good Time Girl 

GUNSHIP, Tyler Bates - Berserker (feat. Dave Lombardo) 

Greg Puciato, Tyler Bates, Gil Sharone - Now You've Really Done It Show Me 

The Body - Stone Cold 

Earth IDLES - Sodium 

Soccer Mommy - Kissing in the Rain

That's a pretty interesting lineup, and despite my lack of interest in the comic, the artwork is cool and features heavily in the vinyl release.

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Watch:

Planning on watching this over the weekend:

 

Also, after fighting through 30 or so minutes of Zack "Slo Mo" Snyder's Army of the Dead last week, I may try again. May.

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Playlist:

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)

Windhand - Split EP

Les Discrets

Lustmord - Heresy

Swans - The Seer

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

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Card:

Ah, I love a direct pull:

Dealing with an ongoing staffing issue on my team at the biorepository. Always tempted to say things I should not, so this is a great reminder to play it cool.

 

Emma Ruth Rundle & Chelsea Wolfe - Anhedonia Official Video

I know I just posted the song, but there was no way I wasn't going to post what might just be my favorite music video in the last decade. It's the rare case where the visuals actually add to the meaning and impact of the song. These two artists are at the top of their game and cranking out material - all of it awesome! Again, I'll echo the sentiment I did the last time I posted this and hope there's an album or EP on the way.

 

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Watch:

K and I did the Netflix Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel over the last two nights. Wow- this should have been a two-hour documentary, but instead, the creators padded it out with A LOT of really infuriating conjecture and nonsense from the 'web sleuth' community. I would unilaterally detest this community, if not for the side of it on display in the HBO doc I'll Be Gone in the Dark. The difference appears to be one of talent and drive - Michelle McNamara and her immediate confidants within the community are clearly light-years beyond the people spouting obvious banalities in the Cecil doc. Either way, the doc starts pretty good, has a fascinating story at its heart, and ends up finishing a lot better than the middle would have suggested it would. 

If nothing else, watching this has made me rabid to re-watch American Horror Story: Hotel, still my favorite season of the five I've seen. Based largely on the Cecil, it will be cool to go back and watch it with the real-world inspiration fresh in mind.

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Playlist:

Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (Single)

King Woman - Doubt EP

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

The Blueflowers - Relapse EP

The Veils - Time Stays, We Go

Vel Indica - Turn Off Your Devices

Def Leppard - Pyromania

Small Black - Duplex (Single)

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Depeche Mode - Essentials

Genghis Tron - Deam Weapon (Single)

Genghis Tron - Cloak of Love EP

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Ghost - Infestissumam

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

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Card:

 Recognizing the powers in the Universe you cannot contest, and having the heart to allow them to move you. I'm sure that my fortune cookie-esque reading has something to do with the renewed approach I've taken to Shadow Play Book Two, and the fact that while I was away finishing Murder Virus, it has somewhat changed - for the better. Still, changing things at this stage is daunting, even if it means the story will be better. However, as the card says, recognize the powers that move you and listen to what they're telling you.

Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle - Anhedonia

 

Moments after finishing my first listen to Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou's entire new EP The Helm of Sorrow (I was holding out for my vinyl to arrive, but gave in), I log onto youtube and see the two Doom Goddess's have joined forces! Is Anhedonia a harbinger of a full-length to come?

I certainly hope so! In the meantime,  I'll play the hell out of this track, because it rules.

Buy from Sargent House HERE.

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READ:

A Most Horrible Library is the newest podcast under The Horror Vision umbrella, and my co-host Chris Saunders and I spent a good two hours last night on Zoom talking with comics writer/artist Jeremy Haun. Jeremy's recent book, The Red Mother, wrapped up with its twelfth issue, and I can tell you, it's fantastic. Especially if you're a Clive Barker or Dario Argento fan.

   

Jeremy is an extremely personable, and very interesting guy. He's a HUGE Horror fan - which endeared him to Chris and I immediately, and he has a bit of a mythology brewing that appears in a lot of what he writes. That mythology - the Four and Seven - also shows up in the short comic stories he publishes via his Patreon, which I subscribed to. Jeremy writes, draws, letters and inks these Haunthology books, and I'm super excited to read them because I'm a sucker for mythologies, and The Red Mother really made an impression on me. 

 

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Playlist:

Credence Clearwater Revival - Eponymous

Small Black - Best Blues

Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (Pre-release single)

Tomahawk - Eponymous

Tomahawk - M.E.A.T. Single

The Jesus Lizard - Lash

The Jesus Lizard - Liar

The Soft Moon - Black Sabbath (Single)

The Soft Moon - Criminal 

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Boy Harsher - Country Girl Uncut

Cocksure - K.K.E.P. EP

exhalants - Atonement

Gwar - Scumdogs of the Universe

The Replacements - Tim

Small Black - Duplex (Single)

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Helm of Sorrow

The Bangles - A Different Light

Drab Majesty - Careless

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

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Card:

I'm writing this Thursday night and it's raining in LaLaLand. As you've no doubt heard me say before, that's pretty rare. I'm on New Retro New Wave tonight, splitting the decades between the 80s and the previous, jumping from The Bangles to Drab Majesty, to Deth Crux, all on vinyl. It's glorious, and I stop to have K try and take a photo of me standing in the rain with my Israeli Military issue gas mask, really just as an excuse to stand out in the rain for a while. When I come in, I draw this card.

I'm burned out from several insanely close COVID scares at work and all the stress that goes with them and the stupid fucking humans responsible. Luckily, by the time most of you read this, I'll be well into my Friday. Then I'll have a quick and painless (I hope) four hours on Saturday, and I'm off until Thursday. Five year anniversary with K on Monday, and three days to be even more of a Hermit than I already am. It will be glorious.

Nobody Wants to Party with Us, says Mrs. Piss

 

I did not find out about Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie's new band Mrs Piss until a week or two ago, and since, their debut Self-Surgery has become a record I simply cannot turn off. Available on the always great Sargent House, you can order the record HERE.

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Watch:

 

Having just seen the original Castle Freak for the first time within the last year or two (Thanks, Joe Bob!), I'd read about Barbara Crampton's work producing a remake and became immediately interested. It's not often one of the original cast members in a seminal film take on such a labor of love, and the fact that the cast member in question is possibly the greatest Scream Queen of all time only adds to my interest. Why remake this film? I can only assume Ms. Crampton has good reason to throw her hat into the project, and judging by the trailer, we should have a new iteration of Stuart Gordon's somewhat odd modern take on the H.P. Lovecraft classic in just a few short weeks.

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NCBD

First, the return of Rick Remender and Jerome Opena's dark fantasy epic has become even more exciting now that they've announced Seven to Eternity will be ending in just three short issues. I love this book, and I've missed it incredibly.

We Live is an Aftershock book getting a lot of press. On a whim I grabbed the first issue last month, dug it quite a bit, and now I'm hooked. Love this cover on issue two. 

A 'zombie book' that is very much not about zombies, Dead Day continues to make me smile.

Die! Die! Die! may be a book I've continued to read out of inertia, but that doesn't mean I'm not still enjoying it. "GI Joe but totally nuts" is really the only way to describe this one.

I mistakenly never added Jason Howard's Big Girls to either one of my pulls at Atomic Basement or The Comic Bug, and as such, it has been a pain in the arse to find since I picked up the first issue. If I hadn't stumbled across a copy of #3 last week, I would have probably given up and waited for trade, but since I'm only missing #2 now, I'm making the attempt to go monthly again, just to support Howard, whose art I adore.

And finally, this is a new one I'm considering picking up. A sequel to Vault Comics' Fearscape, which I did not read but keep hearing good things about, I thought I might grab the first issue of A Dark Interlude and the Fearscape trade. 

This is definitely the biggest NCBD is a while. I still have storage concerns, but they've kind of taken a back seat to 'the passion' again.

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Playlist:

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

The Clash - London Calling

The Bronx - Eponymous (I)

Fleet Foxes - Shore

The Foxies - Anti Socialite (single)

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

Steve Moore - Bliss OST

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Card:

Really, not necessarily a new journey or undertaking, as a direct indictment of how fucking lazy I have been of late. I just can't seem to get my discipline with writing back online at the moment; it's been a struggle now for the last few months, and I really need to do something about it

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.

Isolation: Day 59 - Chelsea Wolfe Covers Crazy Train

Two Minutes to Late Night has been around a while, but it's just popped up in my youtube feed. A heavy metal late night talk show? Sign me up. This is the video that filtered into my feed, and from there I'm hooked. Subscribe and sample the metallic hilarity HERE.

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Taking another small break from Breaking Bad, I had K pick out a show she'd already watched but thought I would like.



I really like this show. Blew through six of the ten episodes of Season One last night, and Two just dropped, so that will serve as a nice pallet cleanser before we enter the last leg of Walter White's saga of blood, money, and meth.

**

Playlist:

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST
Goblin/Giorgio Gaslini - Profondo Rosso OST
Bob Wils and His Texas Playboys - The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 1
The Babies - Eponymous
X - Under the Big Black Sun
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST

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Card:

I've had this overwhelming urge to start slowly playing music again. After two decades of considering myself a musician, I took a hard, sharp turn against that and have probably only picked a guitar or bass maybe ten times in the last four and a half years. Recently, with some undo work stress piled on top of the stress of COVID living, I pulled out my electric - which needs some TLC from a professional - and my Takamine acoustic and have started to play a bit. At this point, guitar-wise, I pretty much have to re-learn the fucking instrument, so there's frustration a plenty there. But the acoustic has proven a balm for overly stressful days, and strumming here and there have me thinking about, well, playing. So, the question is, does The Fool tell me it's time to undertake this new journey, or that I'd be foolish to do so?

I think I'm going to have to pull a full-on spread for this one. No time for that today, though.