Papa V Perpetua Sings Bark At the Moon!!!

NOTE: There was originally a stream version of this posted to YouTube, but a copyright claim by Mercury Records ultimately resulted in its removal. When I saw this video by PigeonPaul82 pop up, I made the switch. Give this man's channel a gander - lots of great stuff. 

Papa V Perpetua singing "Bark at the Moon" at the Farewell Ozzy show. Not my favorite Ozzy record, but I'll take it. Also, I thought this was a Farewell Black Sabbath show, what with all four original members finally being reunited on stage, but I guess it's changed to focus on saying goodbye to Ozzy? Makes me think there's some medical diagnosis I missed. 

I know there's a ton of hype for this, and it streamed as a pay-per-view event, but I paid next to no attention to any of it. I am a die-hard Black Sabbath fan, but in my eyes, the band ceased to exist about a year after Technical Ecstasy came out. I did manage to see them at the first Ozzfests in both '97 and '99 - the first time with Mike Bordin from Faith No More on drums, the second with Bill Ward, and I'm definitely happy I did, however, that was good enough. Not throwing shade - you look at the crowd in this video and there are a lot of younger generations present. I'm super happy they got to experience Ozzy and Sabbath the way I have over the years. Well, maybe not exactly the way I did, but you know what I mean. 

Interestingly enough, I think my third concert ever was the original No More Tours tour, on August 23rd, 1992. Damn do I wish I still had the tour shirt I bought at that concert!

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Watch:

The Criterion sale is underway, and I picked up two movies: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure and Alex Cox's Repo Man. I'd like to take a minute to talk a bit about the latter. 

Somehow, I did not see Repo Man for the first time until around 2015. Over the last ten years, I've probably watched it five times, each time growing increasingly excited by the film. Upon watching it the other night, I made a connection that struck me as so obvious, I'm not sure how I didn't see it before: William Burroughs' influence is all over this film! I think I intuitively understood this in that section of my lizard brain that sorts and catalogues all the movies, comics, fiction and other errata I consume, but that understanding only just made it to surface-level brain. 

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Read:

K and I finally had a chance to stop by the newly opened Clarksville Bookshop and we were not disappointed. A super nice family owns the store, and after chatting for a bit, we were both able to pick up a book. For myself, I left with a beautiful hardcover copy of the new Stephen Graham Jones novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. 

I didn't even realize this was out yet, and although I missed I Was A Teenage Slasher, I'm psyched to jump into a completely new novel by Jones that I know absolutely nothing about. I'm not even going to follow my usual protocol and paste in a solicitation blurb for fear I may read something I don't want to. 

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Playlist:

Willie Nelson - Oh What a Beautiful World Songs of Rodney Crowell

Arctic Monkeys - AM

The Grimm Teachaz - There's a Situation on the Homefront

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST

Dreamkid - Daggers

G.B.H. - A Fridge Too Far

Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services

Dr. John - Things Happen That Way

Ty Segall - Possession

T. Rex - The Slider

bunsenburner - Reverie

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic  Apocalypse

Various - Rocktober Blood OST

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

Melvins - Thunderball

Blood Incantation - Absolute Everywhere

Somnium Nox - Apocrypha EP

Nachtmystium - As Made (Single)

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

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Card:

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

• Ace of Swords

• Queen of Cups

• XIX: The Sun

A breakthrough of Will, heavy Emotion and Revelation. I don't have any idea how this relates to the only thing on my mind this morning - that our Cat Sweetie has to have exploratory surgery and possible mass removal tomorrow, but perhaps I can pin down my emotions (there's that one!) long enough to dig deeper.

One of the notes in my Grimoire for XIX is "Taking the pill will open your eyes." This is peripherally appropriate, as we've been giving her Meclizine (Dramamine 2) for the last five days to try to help her wavering balance and eyesight. This all came out of absolutely NOWHERE, and it reminds me how intense and uncertain the Universe is. 

The Queen of Cups is LOVE and BEAUTY, two attributes I definitely associate with Sweetie and our love for her. This cat has been with us since 2016 when we adopted her as a San Pedro Stray, same as Tom before her. We've found the greatest joy in moving to TN with her and seeing her take to having a backyard she can lounge around in all day, hunt, whatever. This cannot be the end of Sweetie. It just cannot.

New Music From Ghost!

Posting, but not listening. New albums Skeletá is out this Friday, 4/25, and although Loma Vista hasn't shipped my vinyl yet - I'm not sure what they are waiting for - I'm holding out until I can at least listen to the entire record on Apple.

 

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NCBD:

Fantastic pull list this week! Very excited to hit the shop tonight. Here's what I'll be reading later today:

Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana returns, just in time to line up with my Gideon Falls re-read, so I am very much into more Lemire. Plus, this book has been very cool. Atmospheric the way Lemire does so well.

Still one of the strangest books I've read in quite some time, Into the Unbeing continues to confound and delight me. Macrocosmic Body Horror.

Even though I've cooled on Skybound's iteration of Joe, I'm still looking forward to seeing the confrontation promised by this cover.

Two left after this one. Damn, I'm going to miss this book. 

Dust to Dust has really turned out as a sleeper. I don't hear much about other folks reading this book, but I know they're out there. 

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Watch:

I haven't had a chance to say it here yet, but Ryan Coogler's Sinners is an exceptional film, and a breath of fresh air in what started out a strong year for Horror with Presence, Grafted, The Dead Thing and The Monkey, but quickly became stale. 

Sinners shares some structural DNA with Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn in that it both films are actually two movies glued together in the middle with blood. What I love about this is that is the world, right? There's the everyday world where you're robbing a bank or driving around, collecting down-on-their-luck musicians to play at your new Juke Joint, and there's the world where something unnatural arrives and takes you into the netherworld. 

With Sinners, the detail is fantastic. You can feel 1930's Southern heat, the sticky humidity, and the life to which these characters live to their fullest, even when they die. Very cool film that I recommend everyone up for a field trip take in on the big screen. The soundtrack through the theatre speakers alone is worth the trip.

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Playlist:

Dreamkid - Daggers

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk)

Windhand - Eternal Return

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

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Card:

Back to the Thoth deck today for a quick, one-card pull:

From the Grimoire, "How true are you to your inner aspirations and will?" 

Follow They Will...

New Music From Ghost!!!

 

More new Ghost! I'm waiting to listen to this and anything else they drop between now and April 25th, when Skeletá releases. Pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

I had a mini Lucio Fulci marathon yesterday that included two films I'd never seen before. First up, I caught the last third or so of The Beyond on Shudder.TV. This one is an old favorite (thanks, Anthony), and it inspired the marathon.

 

Next up, The New York Ripper. I'd caught a few scenes of this here and there over the years but never watched it in its entirety. Truthfully, I had this one on in the background while I edited the latest episode of The Horror Vision, one earbud in, but with how downright mean and sleazy Ripper is, I got the gist, and it was more than enough.

 

Is it just me, or is there an exorbitant number of scenes in this flick of two men walking and talking exposition? Fulci uses that device often, but here it was cranked to eleven. 

 Finally, A Cat in the Brain. Man, this might be the grossest film by the gore master I've seen yet. 

There's a kind of lackadaisical chill to some of the gore, and it did wonders for the creep factor. This was a late-night watch, so I passed out during parts and need to go back to fill in the gaps. Probably. This is not a great flick, but I'd like to sit through it at least once, even if just to see Fulci as the lead.

 

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Read:

Now that Jeff Lemore and Garbriel H. Walta's Phantom Road is back monthly, I took the opportunity to re-read volumes one and two in one sitting, plowing right on through to last week's issue #11. 

This book is up there with Tynion's SIKTC as one of the most readable books to come out since Kirkman's The Walking Dead. Every issue flies by but packs a whole lot of Mystery and Horror in its pages. I love the character development and how it's taking place, and there are just all kinds of threads to pull on and unravel.

Another thing - this book has so much Twin Peaks influence in it! It's not overt, but it's very much decipherable if you're a fan of Lynch and Frost's epic, only we've transported the weirdness from the forests of the Pacific Northwest to the desert roads of middle America. 

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Playlist:

Bedridden - Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs

All Them Witches - Lightning At the Door

Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor

Dreamkid - Daggers

Slow Crush - Aurora

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Yawning Balch - Volume Two

Miles Davis - Birth of the Blue

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Preoccupations - New Material

Preocccupations - Eponymous

Baroness - Stone

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• XI: Justice

• Knight of Cups

• Nine of Swords

What does it say that Crowley turned XI Justice in Lust? Justice is certainly something people lust after in certain situations. My notes from way back talk about primordial forces underlying existence, and while I'd definitely mark Lust as one of those, I can't say my 49 years on Earth have proven to me that Justice is comparable.

Taken here as the first step on a path that advances to the Will of Emotion and culminates with a foundation of Intellect, I'd say the point to today's Pull is to remember to temper with the underlying push/pull of emotions connected to our view of the world with a healthy dose of Intellect. Not everything is as it seems, we know this, but knowing and abiding or using that knowledge is most definitely not the same thing. 

NEW GHOST ALBUM!!!

 

Holy smokes - the New Ghost album Skeletá is out on April 25th! Pre-order HERE!!!

I definitely haven't loved everything this band has done, but I root for them. Impera was easily my favorite since Infestissumam, and although I'm not crazy about this new song right off the bat, I can say that about two of the 'singles' on Impera. Regardless of my off-the-cuff opinion, the songwriting is here. STRONG melody on the chorus and a pretty ripping guitar solo. I don't love the video, but then, videos I do love are rare. I will say since Tobias Forge's sense of humor has infiltrated the band and all its ventures - it's on full display with this video - I long for the days when they felt a bit more ominous. But then, that was bound not to last. He's funny and always well-spoken, but I guess I prefer a little more solemnity to my Satanic Metal. 

Either way, SUPER psyched and I love that Ghost has taken to announcing their albums like two months out. It's literally right around the corner.

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NCBD:

Small pull this week. STILL waiting on a bunch of books Diamond never shipped to filter in, so maybe some of those will arrive. Otherwise, this is it for NCBD:

I love this continuation of The Nice House on the Lake; however, just as with that first book, I'm behind on my reading. This happens to Tynion's books. They're better read in trade format, but for some of these, I just can't help but buy the monthlies. I guess it's because, at this point, there are so few monthlies I buy and I want to keep the habit alive. 

Solid Batman werewolf series that reminds me of something we might have found in an arc of the late 80s/early 90s Legends of the Dark Knight series.

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Read:

So, I started reading Grant Morrison's Multiversity again. Back when this hit the monthly comic shelves in 2015, I tried for about four issues and gave up. I didn't really admit that I didn't like it, but my life was undergoing escalating turmoil and I was cutting down on my monthly spending in favor of saving my arse, so Multiversity got cut and I never really looked back.

A few months back, my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar gave me a copy of the collected trade paperback with the request we cover it on the show. We recorded yesterday - editing is still in progress - but I have to say, after re-reading the same four issues I read in 2015, I do not love this book at all. What's more, it's making me think I should just up and sell my Final Crisis HC and my Seven Soldiers of Victory complete set of monthlies on eBay because I am no longer the person who I was when I could muster fervor for GM delving into every single nook and cranny of the DCU - a comic book universe I have always held little to no interest in. 

But then I think, is this just me at this moment? You know the feeling; you tire of something, let's say an album or movie or comic book. Not just tire of it but grow disgruntled toward it. This isn't that weird inevitability that some things you love when you're a younger person you will grow to hate for idealistic issues. No, this is the fan inertia I had for GM wearing off a bit and me realizing the stuff I love from him - other than his masterpiece, seven-year Batman run - is his non-IP stuff. Especially non-DC IP, because the DCU is a deep well of superhero stuff that makes me cringe more than it makes me excited. 

I've committed to finishing this book, but man, at this stage, I think it's going to be very tough. Part of my issue is also very much what makes Multiversity a masterpiece accomplishment: when I was younger, the appeal to the Big 2's continuity (well, for me, the Big 1's) was the endless continuity to investigate. I mean, if felt like you could never get there. And with Batman, Morrison read every bit of continuity for one character and synthesized it into one spectacular narrative that incorporated all of it. That's what he's done on a larger scale with the entirety of the DCU, starting with his JLA run, into Earth 2, Seven Soldiers, Final Crisis, and finally Multiverity. As my cohost Mike brings up several times in the episode, this was the final word by the man who was on staff at DC for several years as their "Universe Consultant." That means it's amazing; it's a Mozart concerto of comics, but one I have very little time or bandwidth for in my life at the moment. Maybe never again.

Part of that, then, forces me to reflect that some of my inability to joyously engage with this book is I've gotten fucking lazy. It's not a good thing to reflect on, but I try to be self-aware of the zero-point fluctuation level. So there's really no failing with the artist, just the reader. Damn, when I started this, I didn't expect it to come out like this. 

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Playlist:

Morphine - Yes

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust

Nothing - Guilty of Everything

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Led Zeppelin - Presence

TVOTR - Young Liars E.P.

The Raveonettes - Blackest (pre-release single)

Ghost - Satanized (pre-release single)

Drab Majesty - An Object in Motion

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Card:

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

• Queen of Pentacles

• Ten of Pentacles

• II: High Priestess

Low bandwidth. Lots of Feminine energy, which is almost always a good thing. Earthly matters. Fertile interests.

Before Ghost there was Repugnant

Before Ghost, Tobias Forge was in a band named Repugnant? I had NO IDEA, so thanks to THIS article on Metal Sucks. Death Metal isn't really my jam, but this... not too bad. And from the opening guitar, you can 100% hear that it's Forge's writing. So here's them playing live and that guy that looks kind of like he could be in the Misfits? That's Papa! Always cool to see where our beloved musical icons come from. 

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Watch:

I've struggled with Demián Rugna's 2017 film Terrified multiple times. I liked it, but I didn't feel for it as others who seemed to feel it was the scariest film in years did. My theory is this is due to the fact that I fell asleep during my first viewing (not the film's fault at all), and that tends to rob some film's impact for me. It happened to Duncan Jones's Moon, it happened to Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, and I'm pretty sure it happened to Terrified. Regardless of how I felt about it as far as being "scary," Rugna definitely crafted a confident, competent Horror film that I wouldn't hesitate to others. So it is with no small amount of fervor that I came upon Bloody Disgusting's posting of the trailer for his new film, Where Evil Lurks. Here's the trailer:

I was torn on actually watching this; as you know if you've been reading these pages lately, I've become very anti-trailer. In spite of that prejudice, and cautious that I might once again rob Rugna's film of power, I watched it and can happily confirm this is truly a 'teaser.' Well done, IFC. I can also say I am 100% in just for the sound design alone. Where Evil Lurks is supposed to have a theatrical run starting on October 6th, and will hit Shudder on the 27th of the same month.

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Read:

Almost two years ago, I posted about giving up on Clive Barker's Scarlett Gospels. Well, I decided recently to give it another shot. 

I'm not really far enough to pass judgment again, but this definitely still feels less elegant than any other Barker I've read. The opening scene sees the five remaining Black Magicians in the world (?) resurrect a sixth, more powerful one to try and survive a culling carried out by The Priest (don't use that other nickname!), who is now working separately from The Order of the Gash, attempting to amass all the world's Magickal knowledge for some as yet unknown purpose. The scene begins rather poorly and doesn't really feel like Barker until "The Demon" shows up. Here, I still get a sense that Barker is overdoing the gross-out factor in a misguided attempt to recapture something of his past works - which were all elegantly revolting and not nearly as gauche - but I'm hanging in and hopefully coming to terms with this in a way that will allow me to A) finish the novel this time and, B) enjoy it. Reminder to self: This man is a genius, an icon, and any Barker is better than no Barker.

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Playlist:

The Lucid Night - The Mystic Journey EP

The Lucid Night - The Celestial Voyage (single)

Lord Huron - Long Lost

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

This Movie Saved My Life Podcast - Barbenheimer, Farewell to Jane Birken, and the WGA/SAG Strike

Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

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Oracle:

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.

• Page of Cups

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• Queen of Swords

The Page or Princess of Cups is a card I associate with inner vision, and taken with the Wheel in this case, I see ideas growing to fruition. Therefore, good day to write. Balance all that out with the Watery aspect of Fire and I'm reminded I have a major distraction going on in Chicago at the moment. Reading all these together then, tells me to get the writing in where/when I can today - even a little will be productive.

Ghost Covers Iron Maiden!!!

 

From the forthcoming Phantomime EP, out this Friday! Pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

I've been sick AF since Saturday, so I watched a lot of movies over the last few days. I'm not going to post trailers for everything, but there are a few I'd like to mention. First of those is Gary Busey in a Richard C. Sarafian film, Eye of the Tiger! This was probably my favorite viewing experience. I don't know, seeing Gary Busey kick the hell out of a gang of ruthless bikers. Here's a trailer:

   

I'd put this flick up against a lot of similar movies from the same year - 1986 - that feature box office candy like Stallone and Armold; Eye of the Tiger is really well-made, and Busey turns in a solid performance. 

Also of special note from what I watched over the weekend, 1994's The Guyver.

 

I have some vague memory of seeing the imagery from this film somewhere about the time it would have received release press. More recently, when Fangoria interviewed Steven Kostanski about his influences on Psycho Goreman (Fangoria Vol. 2 issue 10) he mentioned The Guyver, so it was in my peripheral. Then, I noticed that Darcy had uploaded the full movie in the old Monstervision presentation to the Lost Drive-In Patreon, and I figured, what better way to watch it, right? Cool flick; not exactly my cuppa, however, as usual watching pretty much anything with Joe Bob amplifies it. I've thought about this a lot, the idea that even a movie you hate can be made enjoyable (to a degree) when you have the proper context for it. That's something Joe Bob excels at providing, and I usually find myself better able to put myself in the movie's headspace. I'm sure there would be conditions under which this theory would break down; I doubt very much that even if Joe Bob hosted The Notebook I would get a kick out of it. Then again, who knows?

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Read:

I continued to make my way through Alan Campbell's final book in the Deepgate Codex series this weekend, but I also had the itch to read some old Spider-Man comics, so I dug out Web of Spider-Man 40-42, the "Cult of Love" storyline, only to realize I'm missing the fourth and final part.

Not really a big deal; I located issue 43 on eBay, so I'll get to read that in a few days. More important than the story was the general tone of the story. 80s comics are very much recognizable, especially Spidey. They reflect the New York of the time, but also the world and society of the time. The art and writing are a certain 'way' - again, a lot of that has to do with topics that haunted Western Society at the time. Vietnam was a big one, but in this case, echoes of the Tate/Labianca murders and the fear of 'cults' that crime inspired. I wasn't there to read through metaphors of societal trauma, though. No, I was there because the 80s was when I started reading comics and Spidey, while not a mainstay, every-week purchase, had three ongoing monthly titles that I cherry-picked from quite often, and it's always super cool to go back and re-experience those books. 

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Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer

Nirvana - Nevermind

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Cartoonist Kayfabe - Havok/Wolverine Meltdown

The Beatles - Abbey Road

            

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Card:

Easing back into it with a single card Pull from Missi's Raven Deck:

As usual, this deck just knows. I'm abstaining from drinking any beer while I've been sick and thinking of carrying it on until the weekend, just to further give my body a break. My fever's gone, but I was up most of the night last night coughing, so I'm exhausted at the moment. Ginger Ale remains a close friend.

 

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Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me

 

Ghost gave us an Easter surprise by announcing a new five-song, all-covers EP due out May 18th on Loma Vista Records. You can pre-order HERE.

These between album EPs the band releases are generally hit or miss with me; I love 2013's All You Need is Ghost - not so much with 2016's Popestar, which had one of my favorite tracks from the band (Square Hammer) and a bunch of fascinating covers, most of which I just don't ever feel the need to go back to that often (although their "Missionary Man" is admittedly pretty cool). One thing Popestar confirmed for me is that Tobias Forge's ambitions are boundless, and I'm fairly certain at some point in his future, he will craft a Musical that will catapult him into the even further reaches of success.

Juxtaposed against Popestar, Phantomine feels like it may split the difference; while I'm not familiar with "Hanging Around" by The Stranglers, I'm excited as hell to hear them do Television's "See No Evil,"  Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera," not to mention Tina Turner's 80s Thunderdome anthem "We Don't Need Another Hero." I just don't know what to expect that one to sound like.

There's also a video for this track up on youtube, however, it's age-restricted and only viewable HERE.
 

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NCBD:

My haul for NCBD today:

I am SO excited about the return of James Tynion's Nightmare Country. The first arc made it into my Favorite Comics of 2022 list, and I have no doubt this new arc will continue the glory. The closest thing I've seen to having Sandman back again.

My growing fondness for Jeff Lemire's work prompted me to pick up the first issue of this new Phantom Road series and I thought it a great set-up for a Horror story.

Hot on the heels of my Sins of Sinister reread, the final issue of Storm and the Brotherhood will hopefully prove another total mindfuck.

X-Men Vs The Brood. 'Nuff said!

 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Church of the Cosmic Skull - Is Satan Real?

Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me (single)

Kyuss - ...And the Circus Leaves Town

Holy Serpent - Endless

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master

            

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Card:

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

I'm having a lot of trouble interpreting this pull. More than I have perhaps ever had on any other. So I'm going to have to dig a bit. First glance, it feels like an acknowledgment that sacrifice can bring you to the threshold of change, but you have to be careful about the changes you make. 

 

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My Ten Favorite Albums of 2022

Whereas last year, I had moments that suggested I may not be able to cull ten new records for a list, this year I had no similar problems. LOTS of new music in 2022. What follows is the list of my ten favorite albums released in 2022.

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Top Ten Albums 2022:

10) Beach House -  Once Twice Melody

I've been a bit slow on the uptake with Beach House. While I've been partaking in their music for probably close to ten years, I always kept them at arm's length. In fact, it wasn't until two or so years ago that my cousin Charles recommended I give the track "Elegy to the Void" my undivided attention. That song, from the band's 2015 album Thank Your Lucky Stars, proved to be the track that opened an entirely new dimension to the band's music for me. Since then, every album that drops plays a slightly more important role in my year, culminating with this year's double album, Once Twice Melody, which, like Mastodon's Hushed and Grim last year and another 2022 album higher on this list, is a double album with NO fat. Every track is perfect, the order is essential, and it all builds into a fitting snapshot of the quieter moments of my 2022.

9) H6LLB6ND6R - Side A

Here's a first - H6LLB6ND6R is made up of the Addams family, who also have a film in my top ten films this year! The movie is likewise titled Hellbender, and just like this record, it's a really fresh take on what a stripped-down, independent project can accomplish. If this is bedroom-producing, I want more. Every track has a hook, and yet, the sludgy, pummeling goodness still hits hard. Add in an early Jucifer-vibe to the doubled vocals, and I just couldn't put this one down. 

8) Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Everything Greg Puciato does moves the needle well into the red with me. Mirrorcell is no different. That first single, "Lowered" with Reba Meyers from Code Orange is a massive track, and really helped to define my year. The rest of the album takes the slightly fractured feeling of Puciato's first solo record, Child Soldier, and smooths it into a more coherent whole. I miss the f*ck out of DEP, but I can't really complain when their singer is giving us albums of this calibre.

7) Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Until Leather Terror, Carpenter Brut's records always felt like they were half-there to me. I dig several of them to varying degrees, and the OST to Blood Machines is fantastic (but that's a score, and thus, something a bit different than an album), but there's always been a... I don't know, call it a whimsy that sneaks into the vibe and leaves me a bit cold. But that's just me. I also think my regard for CB may have suffered by my being such a fan of Perturbator-  anyone else working in that realm of "Synthwave" or whatever you want to call it felt a few notches behind. 

But as I said, ALL of that is my own baggage, and should not be misconstrued as judgment against the extremely accomplished musician known as Carpenter Brut, who proves me 100% full of shit on this new album. This one SLAMS, the guest vocalists all do fantastic work, and the one-two of tracks "Day Stalker" and "Night Prowler" is something to behold. 

Baggage ejected; can't wait for the next record!!!

6) The Mysterines - Reeling

My elevator pitch for this band is meant to evoke honor, and yet I realize it essentially sells the Mysterines short. "PJ Harvey singing for BRMC" is enough to convince folks to give this band a chance, but having listened to the record countless times and seen them live (my first post-vaccination show), a comparison like that does nothing to convey the raw gifts on display in Reeling's perfectly tight 13 songs. This is Rock n' Roll that lives and breathes with a confidence and cool that places it right up there in the lexicon of bands that will live forever - Iggy, Bowie, the aforementioned PJ and Motorcycle Club. A lot of that is owed to singer/guitarist Lia Metcalfe, who emotes a conjuration somewhere between Nick Cave's mystic knowledge and PJ's "Fuck U" attitude.

5) Final Light - Final Light

Brutal, majestic, mysterious: take the neon pentagram glow of Perturbator's music and wash it in the medieval blood of the north often associated with Black Metal and you still can't quite get close to capturing the sonic environment of this record. One thing's for sure though: It's a storm! 

I've spent A LOT of time this year using Lustmord's various instrumental music as a soundtrack to my writing because of the doorways his musical manipulations open. Maybe more than anything else on this list, Final Light provides a very similar experience. There are dark places herein, but they're inspiring and beautiful and, if you catch them just right, they'll take you places you won't be expecting.

4) Sylvaine - Nova

I'd never heard of Sylvaine until I saw them open for another band on this list, and live they absolutely blew me away. When I fired up this year's Nova album I found that, just like that live show, this band's studio mastery creates an all-encompassing experience that is visceral and beautiful and at times, sad and scary. That's pretty much exactly what I want from my Post-Black-Metal-Folk-bands, and Nova shot to the top of that list the moment I hit play on this one.

3) Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

To quote my good friend Keller as we stood in L.A.'s Echoplex this past October watching Z&A tear through 80% of the new, eponymous record, "These guys are truly post-genre." Yep. Every album just gets bigger and better. Can't wait for the next. 

2) Ghost - Impera

I was not a super fan of Ghost's previous record, Prequelle, and while I've never stopped recognizing Tobias Forge's genius, his work doesn't always align with my taste or what I perceive as the promise whispered by those first two-and-a-half Ghost albums. So in the run-up to the release of this year's Impera, I had assumed this would be another quasi-disappointment. 

Wrong. This is easily my favorite Ghost album behind Infestissumam. Something about the arranging and songwriting on this one - I'm not sure if it's because I'm at a place where I have reassessed and embraced so much 80s Hard Rock I once detested, but I feel elements of a lot of that here, only transmogrified into something sleek and modern. Side A closing tracking "Watcher in the Sky" is my favorite song by the band behind "Year Zero," as well as my second favorite song of the year, and it carries a lot of weight here. That said, every single track moves me and gets stuck in my heart, even the mellowest ones, because they all fit together into this beautiful puzzle called Impera and make for a thrilling snapshot of an artist who has still yet to tap into his reserves.

1) Orville Peck - Bronco

It is a rare breed, the musician who can follow up a widely praised - and deservedly so - debut album with an even better sophomore record, let alone one that is a double album. Orville Peck, however, knocked this one so far out of the park, Pony seems like it came out a decade ago. Bronco is thrilling, with every track outshining the previous in lyrics, melody, and above all instrumentation. Like Impera, Bronco takes what has come before and influenced it - in this case the pomp and circumstance of 70s country instrumentation - and weaves it into a beautiful portrait of the years that preceded the album and those yet to come. Also, like Impera, one of the songs on the A Side - in this case, "Out of Time" - is my favorite of the year. What a perfect fit to my exodus from California and my move to Tennessee. 

Inbetween States: The Magick of A Large Country

 

One of my favorite tracks on Ghost's Impera, an album where I love every track. Is it madness to say this is my second favorite of their records (behind Infestissumam)? I don't care. I love this record.

So, after packing all day last Saturday, and loading all day Sunday, my good friend Keller and made it from LaLaLand to Clarksville, TN in a day and a half! It was awesome. We left immediately after packing (he helped a bit near the end, but I wanted him crisp to drive first-shift, knowing I would be exhausted. My Horror Vision Brother King Butcher and our friends Maddie and Kenta really threw down with us on the move - no easy task when you realize that K's Mom pretty much had, once again, not packed much of anything before day-of). Keller drove from 11:00 PM Sunday, 7/31, until around 7:00 AM the following day. We stopped at a gas station in Flagstaff, AZ, and accidentally hit the skirt of the truck on the concrete bumper guarding the pumps.

Thank god for that bumper.

This is a 20-Foot uHaul truck, and as you might imagine, there's a learning curve. However, everything was ultimately fine because we paid $199 for uHaul's Safemove insurance. SO worth it, and honestly, we were already paying close to $7000 for the truck - it would have been half the price if we trekked over the border into Nevada, however, the monetary benefits would not have outweighed the sanity benefits of picking that truck up down the street from our house. 

So my first driving shift began about 7:40 AM (we hit a McDeath's near the gas station for a breakfast sandwich and COFFEE). I'd come to peace with going back to eating meat the week before - that's something I'll hopefully correct again soon, and while I try to avoid McDeath, you really have little choices on the roads between states, so again, I accepted the circumstances for what they were. That shift lasted fourteen hours - I was on fire! Seriously, I did not want to relinquish the vehicle. It was as though I had tapped into something. I've read and thought a lot about the hypnogogic states long drives induce, but this was something even more powerful. I've always thought there is Magick in this country, in the sheer size and what that does to our consciousness as we traverse it, and I think that's what Keller and I tapped into while driving. 

So shifts:

Keller: 11:00 PM-7:00 AM

Shawn: 7:40 AM-9:00 PM (time shift puts us at local time ~11:00 PM

Keller: 11:30 PM-3:00 PM

..

I-24 kind of divides Clarksville into two textures. Where we stayed last month with my parents was West of the 24, closer to Fort Campbell, and it has a bit more of a hodge-podge feel. Still nice, but it's a lot of strip malls with Vape stores and Payday loans shops. East of the Highway is decidedly crisper. It's mostly new developments, new stores, etc. When K and I rolled into town with my folks at the end of June, we entered the city through the West side and honestly, it knocked our expectations down a few pegs. After getting priced out of the Murfreesboro/Lavergne/Smyrna area by Angeleno homeowners, seeing this side of Clarksville felt a little like a defeat. When our Realtor eventually explained the divide and showed us around the East side, we felt a lot better, hence why we bought the house that we did. However, as the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so I carried an almost unconscious, background anxiety around with me through the sale, inspections, packing, etc. When Keller and I drove in, Siri had us go a totally different way, using the 31, which is essentially a long, scenic surface street. A bit stressful with a 20-Foot truck, but it totally did the trick. All my low-level disappointment evaporated. I fucking LOVE it here.  K and I sat outside on our back porch last night and watched a lightning storm. 

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Watch:

We haven't had the internet, and we haven't had any time to watch anything, but if all goes well, tonight we'll be digging into some of what we missed. Here's where I'm planning on starting:

 

And, of course:

 

While I've been fairly skeptical about what feels like the nearly impossible feat of adapting Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, I am hearing nothing but good things from people I know. Of course, it remains to be seen how I feel about it - as Sandman is one of my all-time favorite and most influential comics, but my mind is open.

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Read:

Finally going to start reading James Tynion's Something Is Killing the Children, thanks to Gerald at the Comic Bug, who sold me a set of the first five issues with David Mack covers for half-price as a going-away gift. Look at these:

So far, I'm in. Issue One is a FANTASTIC set-up. 

I'm glad I waited to start this (although for investment purposes, I wish I had that first-printing #1). Tynion's 3-issue The Closet just wrapped this past week, and it cinched him as one of my favorite current writers in comics, so I have a nice big run of SIKTC ahead of me to look forward to.

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Playlist:

Orville Peck - Bronco

Ghost - Impera

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Zombi - 2020

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Adia Victoria - A Southern Gothic

Calexico - The Black Light

Fleet Foxes - Shore

Ella Fitzgerald - Best of, Vol. II

The Bangles - Different Light

Anthrax - Worship Music

Cults - Static

ZZ Top - Eliminator

Billy Idol - The Roadside EP

Deafheaven - Ten Years Gone

The Contours & Dennis Edwards - Motown Rarities 1965-1968

SOD - Speak English or Die

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

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Card:

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

The first pull here was done on Wednesday, August 3rd 2022. The second night in the new house. K didn't arrive until the following night, so this was Keller and I hanging out after a second hard day of unloading. I had procured some Mushrooms from a friend back in LaLaLand and saved them for this trip, so when we knocked off for the evening, we opened fresh beers and ate about 2 grams each.

First, yes. I shuffled.

The fact that I laid down 13, 12 and 11 is crazy to me. I read this as the sacrifices I endured (saving $, dealing with all the difficulties of moving your life across country) to perform a massive life-changing ritual (the drive), rewards me. And I'm feeling that reward. Everyone loves this house: Keller couldn't get over it, Kirsten loves it, her Mom loves it, and Sweetie loves it. Oh, and I love it. 

Ghost - Impera

 

Ghost had a big ol' Release Ritual for their new album Impera, out today. You can still order the album HERE. As I write this, it's 11:00 PM PST, so the full album dropped two hours ago when the East Coast hit Midnight. 

I'm definitely losing some of the "to hell and back" vibe I had with Ghost, but I still feel like their music is fantastic, even if not always what I want it to be. Oh, how I long for Infestissumam, and to a lesser extent, Meliora ("Circe" is probably my favorite song by the band, or at least a close second to "Year Zero"). Even more than their actual music, I have long been interested in the course Tobias Forge has plotted out for his music. Since Popestar in 2016, it has been my prediction that Forge will eventually do a big budget broadway musical - I really see so much of that theatrical DNA in their records and their live show. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm off Friday - when you're reading this - so I'm up late with my first go-through of Impera running through my headphones and it sounds great. Again, not always what I want, exactly, but still great.

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Watch:

A new featurette for Marvel's Moon Knight dropped earlier in the week. I'm trying to avoid seeing too much, but I broke down and watched this, can vouch that there are no real spoilers included here. The show begins March 30th, and I find myself counting the days. I want to like this one so much - with MK a favorite character and Benson and Moorehead as showrunners, well, this seems like there is no way it could possibly disappoint me.

However... 

I'm still not sold on the way the costume looks on screen. I'm really hoping I get over that, or the images we're seeing are early on in the costume's evolution. I refer back to Netflix's Daredevil here, where at the end of the first season when Matt Murdock transitioned from the Fran Miller-inspired black mask to the actual DD costume, I was totally taken aback, but by the second season the rough edges had been rounded down. Regardless, Moon Knight is really hanging on as a favorite at the moment, and it has A LOT to do with Jed Mackay's current run on the monthly book - issue #9 in particular - which just blew me away. Making the House of Shadows the new Midnight Mission was a stroke of genius...

And then there's this:

I'm a fan of Marvel's Black, White & Blood books, even though I've not actually picked up all that many of them. This, however. Holy shit. I never would have anticipated them doing a Moon Knight installment. I've always tried to be consistent with the character; I missed out on the 80s series completely, cherry-picked at the 90s one, and missed the Charlies Huston series altogether, but loved the entirety of the Brian Michael Bendis run that followed shortly after. Then the Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey - well, let's just say that's holy in my eyes, and one of the things I've loved about the interpretation since - and what I expect to love about the Disney+ series - is the Mr. Knight persona. That's the kind of genius you expect from a collaboration between Ellis and Shalvey, and I've been continuously happy to see it garnering so much of the character's continued evolution.

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Playlist:

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Ministry - Filth Pig

Ghost - Live From the Ministry (Impera Release Ritual)

Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil

The Twilight Singers - A Stitch in Time EP

Ghost - Impera

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Card:

Taking a break from the Thoth deck and moving back to my beloved Raven Tarot:

A reminder to take knowledge from even the most obscure or upsetting places. This feels like it figures in to my current state of mind, which is about 30% paranoia. I'm looking for answers as to how to continue with my life, how to streamline the next series of large steps I have to take in order to get the hell out of my current paradigm and into what's next. Lot's of setbacks, lots of arrows. But there are always distractions and detractors. The point is to move beyond what we know and just make it happen. Lucifer certainly did.

Pike Vs The Automaton

Oh my god. Rough day yesterday, then I woke after a recuperative 11 hours and 18 minutes of sleep (haven't slept like that in over a decade, but my body needed it after yesterday, which I will get to shortly) and find Matt Pike's solo album Pike vs the Automaton has dropped! Three songs in, and I love this. I mean, out of the first three tracks, it was tough to decide which one I wanted to post: "Abusive" opens the record, and I loved it the second I heard those opening chords. Track 3, "Trapped in a Midcave" opens with such a throwback to The Art of Self Defense era High on Fire it seemed the natural choice, but in the end, how do you not post the track named "Throat Cobra". Shit, what a great Friday already!

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Watch:

First, I LOVE that HBO has titled the second season of their SciFi/Body Horror show Raised By Wolves, Raised By Wolves 2. Episode 4 dropped last night, and as with the previous three and all of season one, I am repeatedly left scratching my head at where any of this is going - in the best possible way. There is NOTHING like this show, and I find there is no way to estimate where any of the plot threads are going, where the beats are landing, or to what lengths it will go to get stranger and more Horrific in a very Ridley Scott's Alien kind of way.

I'm going to go ahead and post the full first episode here - courtesy of HBO's youtube channel. 

If you've not seen it, this one is definitely worth your time. And if you dig it but don't have HBO Max, I can assure you, if Raised By Wolves isn't enough to justify the cost of a few months subscription price, then the Turner Movie Classic suburb of the app more than makes it worthwhile. 

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WTF?:

I saw this on Ghost's youtube channel, called and received a cool little message that included this picture. 

I feel like Ghost is going back to their old-school weird, counter-intuitive approach to marketing, and I like it.

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Playlist:

Pearl Jam - Vs. *

Justin Timberlake - Justified

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Plagarism EP

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

Urge Overkill - Saturation

Urge Overkill - Oui

Pike Vs the Automaton

Tricky - Maxinquaye

Burial - Antidawn

Beach House - Once Twice Melody 

...........................

* I still get a chill everytime I listen to the opening track on Pearl Jam's second record, "Go." I've never been a huge fan of the band or even this particular album - Ten is spotless start to finish, Vs has its ups and downs for me, although I love more of it than I don't. But the energy in this opening track and the emotional charge to Eddie Vedder's vocals is powerful stuff, mate.

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Card:

One of the things I love about the High Priestess, and this Raven Tarot High Priestess my friend Missi made me, is the inclusion of Joachim and Boaz, the two pillars from King Solomon's temple. They represent Love and Understanding, Knowledge from unifying the two. When I look at this card, I see the Kabballahistic tree of life between the two pillars, and the High Priestess sitting in front of the image, occluding several of the sephiroth. Not just any sephiroth, either. She is blocking the lower spheres of perception, making it difficult to discern the path from where we are, to those higher planes of consciousness at the summit of the tree. This card, then, often reminds me that although the path to my intended goal is unclear, unifying disparate information, or simply acting out of love and understanding, will reveal the path I need to take. This is especially pertinent at the moment. The 'rough day' I referenced above - now two days behind me as I type this final part of this post - involved a failed biopsy on my right lung. Long and the short of it is, I have had a condition known as sarcoidosis for several years now. Actually, probably more like a decade +, it just took the doctors a bit to figure out what it was. Sarcodosis is a chronic inflammation disease, and not necessarily as troublesome as the word disease implies. However, it's something you keep tabs on. So every 6 months or so, I go in for CT scans so my Pulminologist can track the amount of difference between my pulmonary inflammation - has it increased or decreased. At one point, they tried treating it with the steroid prednisone, however, that produced a side effect that gave me terrifyingly blurred vision, thus, my doctors promptly removed me from the treatment. 

During the pandemic, I did not see my Pulminologist. Also, I'm a typical male in the respect that I hate going to the doctor and following up on this type of shit. Whatever. I have already excepted that this is probably what will eventually kill me. Fine - let's just push that off as far as possible, right? 

Anyway, this past October I went in for my first CT scan since May 2019, and in reviewing the images, my doctor saw a 1cmm shape that, "may be nothing, but let's be sure."

Yes doc. Let's be sure.

So a biopsy is ordered. Or it was supposed to be. November came and went and I never heard from the doc's office. We moved into December and I figured now it's the holidays, so I'll wait until January. Come the first week or so of 2022, I start calling to talk to someone.

I cannot get through. At some points, there's not even an answering service on the line, it just rings and rings. I start to fear the doctor has died or retired or something. Then I get a phone tree, and am able to leave  message. 

I never hear back.

Okay, what the absolute fuck, right? Finally, about three weeks ago, I finally get someone. They transfer me to an amazing woman in booking that is mortified at my experience when I describe it to her. She sets out to book the biopsy as soon as possible, does, and I go in this past Thursday. Only, the little fucker they need to access - via a 26cm needle inserted through my back into my lung - is behind a fucking rib. We spend a great deal of time practicing various combinations of my holding my breath, exhaling, etc, all to try and get the doctor performing the procedure a shot at accessing the spot in question. During this, my right lung begins to collapse. 

Needless to say, that's where we stop. 

I spend the better part of that day in the hospital on oxygen, having X-Rays every two hours to make sure my lung is reinflating on its own. 

It is. 

During this time, I have nothing to occupy my time, so I spend six or seven hours basically meditating; practicing very specific, purposeful deep breathing. I figure it's good for me all around, and should hopefully help my lung regain its proper shape. I am trepidatiously discharged that evening. I'm in pain and still somewhat short of breath, but I'm markedly better. I watch episode of Raised By Wolves 2, then turn over and go to bed at about 7:00 PM. I sleep 11 hours and 18 minutes and wake up feeling great. The pain in my back, side and chest that came from the inserting part of the procedure is reduced by about 60%. My breathing feels better still. I go in at 9:00 AM for another X-Ray and talk to the doc afterward. The lung is still partially collapsed, but I have a follow-up with my Pulmonologist on Monday and we will decide how to proceed. 

Which brings me back to the High Priestess. 

This has, as I feared it might, paused our move. Not for long, but the path to our goal has become obscured. I have to figure out how to get a sample of this damn thing, and I'm pretty sure it's going to require being put under and attached to a machine that can breathe for me. Not a fan of this idea, however, if it will provide the results, it has to be done. I already know the other option is, since this might be nothing, to wait and see if it gets bigger, which would be alarming but would also, in theory, make it easier for them to get a sample. Not sure I want to wait, though, especially because once we move, I'm fairly certain I will be switching to a PPO insurance plan, which traditionally includes more out of pocket expenses. 

But I want to charge forward, cut a path through to the results I want as fast as I want them, because I want out of this fucking state. I want to be closer to my friends and family in Chicago, and I want to get away from the place where liberals act exactly like conservatives, and ubran expansion continues unchecked into realms that will absolutely damage the infrastructure of the city and, consequently, its inhabitants' lives. Elected officials in most states suck, but California - and LaLaLand in particular - is off the fucking charts. I need calm, less traffic, and some semblance of sanity.