Loathe - Screaming

 

Getting back into Loathe's 2020 record, I Let It In and It Took Everything, which I first fell in love with in early 2021. How did I go so long without listening to this? Sure, I've spun it a few times in the last three and a half years, but not as much as I should have, considering how obsessed I am with it at the moment. Can't wait for something new from these guys - they did release a counterpart record in 2021, the all-instrumental The Things They Believe, but I'm talking about a new, proper album. A lot of things I see online lead me to believe we can expect a new one any time now, so I'll be waiting...

 

---

---

---

Watch:

I watched Ben Wheatley's A Field In England last Friday. I'd made two previous attempts to watch this one over the last ten years or so, and failed both times. I never once considered this was the film's fault, just a failure on my own part to relinquish myself to the slow-moving, otherworldly specificity of Wheatley's vision with this one. It was decided recently that we would cover Field on an upcoming episode of The Horror Vision's Sticks N' Stones - our Folk Horror discussion vehicle, and in looking for a unique angle to take I had the idea that I would eat the last of some psychedelic mushrooms I've had in my desk for going on two years now. 

A strategy was born, and I undertook the endeavor this past Friday night.

I'll save the details of this cinematic expedition for the episode of our show. For now, though, let me just say this was a perfect strategy, and while the mushrooms were not nearly as potent as they were two years ago (I should have frozen them!) they offered a deeper watch than I'd been able to achieve on those other two occasions. 

A really fine film, and a marvelous score by Jim Williams, who is very quickly becoming my favorite working film composer today.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Mudhoney - March to Fuzz

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Man or Astro-Man? - Defcon 5...4...3....2...1

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything

Loathe - The Things They Believe

X - Los Angeles

Pigface - Live 2019 Limited Edition Vinyl (Thanks, Mr. Brown!)

Tubby Hayes Quintet - Down in the Village (Live at Ronnie Scott's Club, London 1962)

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

Les Discrets - Prédateurs

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker

Pepper Adams - Encounter!

Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Jackie Wilson - Higher (single)

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (single)

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Ace of Swords

• V: The Hierophant

• Knight of Wands

Intellectual breakthrough possibly arrived at via a spiritual state. The Knight of Wands may indicate that what stands in the way of achieving this enlightenment is an imbalance between the intellectual and spiritual/emotional states, which kind of defines what it is to be human, especially in the chaotic period of upheaval that usually predates a breakthrough or epiphany.

Jim Williams - Possessor

I can feel a viewing of Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor on the horizon. I've become quite entranced by the score, which I'd always enjoyed in the context of the film but hadn't completely warmed to as a stand-alone listen. That ended yesterday, when I played the album - and this track in particular - over several times. 

---

---

---

NCBD:

It's New Comic Book Day! Here are my picks:

The final issue. I still haven't been able to physically acquire issue three, although Mike Shin has a copy for me at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort. Since I never subbed Syzmon Kurdanski's Blood Commandment at Rick's, it's a toss-up whether or not I actually bring issue four home today. If not, I'll call Mike. 

Not going to lie; I cannot wait to read this issue just based on the cover alone. Something about the image of Lorna Dane in her father's armor just feels like, yeah, something I've always wanted but never put into words or even coherent thought.

James Tynion IV and Josh Hixon's The Deviant continues to spiral deeper into a psycho-social mystery that, although we already know who (or what) the killer is, carries a 

I still can't believe we're three issues from the end. Damn. Looking around online, I've yet to see any concrete information as far as whether the new Jason Aaron series will continue the continuity built up over 150 glorious issues of this series or if it will just restart everything. Hoping for the former, afraid for the latter. 

The cover says it all. I never thought I'd see Optimus Prime wearing Megatron's Canon arm, but then, between everything we've seen in the pages of Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers and Joshua Williamson's Cobra Commander, I guess I should now just be prepared for a lot of surprises when it comes to these two long-time properties.

---

---

---

Watch:

I showed K Destroy All Neighbors yesterday. She loved it. So did I; totally holds up upon second viewing.

 

The vocoder hostage negotiation scene is one of the funniest things I've seen in recent years. Directed by Josh Forbes and written by Charles A. Pieper, along with Jared Logan and Mike Benner, this one really arrived at the right time for me. Horror-comedy is a favorite when it's done right, and this does it exactly right. There are so many '90s Oddball vibes in here. Then, of course, factor in Gabriel Bartalos, and you have a straight-up win all around. The prosthetics on Alex Winter are INSANE, and he does an outstanding job acting through them. In fact, there's a fantastic article in the latest Fangoria about this that really peeled back the curtain on some of the production (though not too much to eclipse the overall film). 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Tears for the Dying - Memories

Justin Hamline - The House with Dead Leaves

Psychetect - Extremism

Morphine - The Night

---

---

---

Card:

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

• 0: The Fool

• Eight of Cups

• XIII: Death

A journey starts and almost immediately fails and ends. Rapid prototyping? I have to think about this one for a bit, as depending on how I choose to interpret it, this may be advice on opting out of a project I was planning on releasing soon. I don't feel like said project 'failed,' although I did think it would be done by now. That said, I took a huge jump forward with it, then relaxed because, honestly, I have really lost the thread with Writing since December. I just didn't get very much done in January while I was in L.A., and it's only yesterday that I began actively carving out a workspace for it.