Opeth Covers Alice In Chains

Being that I'm a fairly big fan of both these bands, I'm not sure how I never came across Opeth's cover of Alice in Chains' "Would?" Now that I have, I have mixed feelings. It's an excellent cover, don't get me wrong. That said, it reminded me just how awesome the AIC original is, and kind of just left me wanting to listen to that on repeat, over and over again.

But I don't listen to Would? or anything else on Dirt on repeat. This is a special album that is very personal to me, and with something like this, I'd be afraid of robbing even just a little bit of its power. 

---

---

---

Watch:

Last Thursday, K and I took in a screening of Justin Tipping's new film HIM. Produced by Jordan Peele, this one is getting a lot of negative critical reaction. For myself, someone who holds pretty much nothing but disdain for both American football and modern hip-hop aesthetic - two factors that weigh heavily in this one - I absolutely loved it.

I still think this is one of the best trailers I've seen in recent years. It really whets the appetite without giving any actual plot away (though, I would argue, they should have held back some of the imagery divulged herein).

There's a lot about this film that makes me think it's essentially a skin of The Substance, but HIM is dressed in so much surreal, stylized imagery specific to Tipping's vision that it definitely stands on its own. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Fabio Frizzi - The Beyond OST

Dean Hurley - Flower: Tales From the Occult Library

Hellbender - Hellbender OST

Deftones - private music

Deftones - Ohms

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Give the People What They Want

INXS - Kick

The Bangles - All Over the Place

Billy Joel - The Stranger

Steely Dan - Aja

Deicide - Eponymous

Deicide -  Legion

Russian Circles - Gnosis

Hall & Oats - Do What You Want, Be What You Are (Disc 3)

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Kane Parsons - Backrooms OST

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather

---

---

---

Card:

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

Also, if you head over to Grimm's Kickstarter HERE you'll see his upcoming The Eldritch Lace Tarot Deck, you can hit the "notify upon launch" button and then you can get on this seriously unbelievably awesome deck. 

• King of Pentacles

• Five of Swords

• X: Wheel of Fortune

Abundance, conflict and the inevitability of change. Not liking the sound of that at the moment. I suddenly know A LOT of people who have lost their jobs after working for their respective companies for years. I feel like Alien: Earth has really exacerbated my fears of Corporate life in this world, and now massive layoffs make it hard to dismiss those fears as nonsense. Pushing off that Lazarus re-read for a while longer, too. Don't need any more paranoia than I already have. 

The Endlessly Fascinating Riddle of Neptune's Eye

I've made it a mission to fully engage with Blut Aus Nord's Disharmonuium series again. These guys are so out there sometimes - and I mean that in the best way possible - that I still don't feel like I have a grasp on some of their work. And Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses/Disharmonium: Nahab feature chief among those albums that confound the living hell out of me.

Back in 2018, while reviewing The Dillinger Escape Plan's final album, Disassociation, I mentioned that their music often feels like encountering an extra-dimensional being that I can only grasp in vague cross-sections. That doubles for Blut Aus Nord when they are at their most experimental. The confluence of Industrial and Black Metal on these albums is astoundingly obtuse - this is the kind of music Lovecraft's protagonists occasionally describe hearing in the presence of the Outer Gods. They set a precedent for that with 2011's The Work Which Transforms God - the album that originally drew me to them. The Disharmonium series, however, really pushes that sound into new places. Dark sonic plaguescapes of an almost ungraspable nature. This sounds dramatic, but it's not. Listening to these albums, it's hard to hold onto the music for very long at all; the drums form an omnipresent backdrop upon which the guitars and keyboards (?) bloom and evolve like blood droplets in hot water. Miasma is a word that springs to mind. I'm gearing up for a session where I smoke up and sit in the middle of my floor between my speakers, just concentrate to the best of my ability on the music and where it takes me.

But I haven't found that time yet. 

---

---

---

Play:

New Metroidvania Moadra looks BAD ASS! Some of these graphics align nicely with what I discussed above regarding Blut Aus Nord, so I couldn't pass up following up with this.

 

This one is hitting multiple game platforms later this year, but, of course, as of now, I'm still only interested in the Switch, so I'm glad to see Nintendo included in the rollout here. You can read more about the game and the other consoles over on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

A week or two ago, my good friend and Horror Vision Cohost Tori posted a trailer in our podcast group chat. The trailer was for a movie I had not heard of at the time, HIM. I started watching the trailer and had to wonder why she had posted a football-centric film that looked akin to Any Given Sunday.

Then, at about the 41-second mark, the trailer changes. What follows revealed what is now one of my most eagerly anticipated films of the year.

I hate football, but I love films that defy categorization and expectation. HIM appears to be a film that will do both. I've seen this trailer three times now, and where that would normally drive me fucking crazy, each time I just marvel at it, thinking, "What the absolute fuck is this about?"

I don't want an answer. I just want to see it.

Produced by Jordan Peele, this is Written by Zack Akers & Skip Bronkie and Directed by Justin Tipping - three people I am wholly unfamiliar with, making this even more of a mystery.

---

---

---

Playlist:

The Cops - Free Electricity

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Melvins/Jello Biafra - Sieg Howdy

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Bluekarma - The Communication

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

McKinley James - Live!

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Six of Cups

• Four of Wands

• Eight of Cups

The joy of completion can lead to inactivity. Keep active. 

Good advice for someone who just finished one book and is pretty hot on the next. Keep it going; don't rest on your laurels.