New Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Premieres on Youtube 10/04

The new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album will be streaming at 2:00 PM HERE. Physical copies drop Friday, October 8th, and you can pre-order HERE.

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31 Days of Horror:

10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
10/02: Lords of Chaos



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Playlist from 10/02:

Type O Negative - Dead Again
Various - Halloween Playlist
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Pignatelli - Phenomena OST
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
Perturbator - Dangerous Days

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Card of the day:

I needed a clarification on this but didn't have time to do a full, three-card spread, so I pulled one more:

So the Seven of Wands refers directly to my wavering attempts at getting back on track with my recently re-energized attempts to put myself back on an active path with Magick. I've had a nearly impossible time getting my breathing back under control - and I was doing so good! I'll have to try and pull another card later to get some idea what I need to do to get myself going again. 

2019: January 2nd

A teaser finally dropped for Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos! I saw this back in the Fall at Beyondfest and it's fantastic. I'll definitely be going again - if it gets a proper theatrical release.

How about some more Horror, eh?



I believe I've discussed Luchagore Productions in these pages at some point in the past. I first came across their short film El Gigante back at Beyondfest 2014 and absolutely loved its Texas Chainsaw Massacre-meets-underground wrestling premise. Recently this new short film popped up on their youtube channel. Bad ASS! Check out all their great stuff on their website HERE. I still haven't made it around to reading their comics, but it's on my list.


Playlist from 01/01:

Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
M83 - Junk
U2 - War

Card of the day:

I crossed a super barrier on the finale of the book yesterday, here's a nod to the strength I'll need to try and finish it off this week - then the edit! Major goal for the new year is to have it published in April, just like A Collection of Desires was last year.

2018: September 28th - More New Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats

Really can't wait for this record.

Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos is excellent. The film goes out of its way to humanize Euronymous, played by Rory Caulkin, and conversely sets Varg up to look pretty much like a bit of a wallflower. The cinematography is gorgeous - especially the church burning scenes - and the murder scenes are brutal. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre - which I'm on the fence with as far as the old, second wave stuff - or anyone fascinated by sociological oddities.

Being that it's Beyondfest time, I've been reflecting on some of the other films I've seen there over the last few years. At the same time, while catching up on the always brilliant Shock Waves podcast, Episode 112 has Gigi Guerrero as a guest. I didn't realize who she was until the hosts brought up her short film El Gigante, which I saw a few years ago at Beyondfest and LOVED, kind of a Luchadore-meets-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre hybrid. Here's the trailer:



Ms. Guerrero's production company El Luchagore's website is chock full of awesome content, and she says they are still in the early stages of making a full length out of the short. Also, there's a comic!

Playlist from 9/27:

Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Chris Connelly - The Tide Stripped Bare
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le Mani Destre Recise degli ultimi Uomini

Card of the day:

With this many recurrences of late, it's face value time: what am I being foolish about?

2018: September 27th

File that one in the #currentlyspinning category; I have it up loud in my office and people who walk by look a little creeped out. Good. It's almost October - the perfect chance to be creeped out!

Super excited to be going to see Jonas Åkerlund's new film Lords of Chaos on the big screen tonight at my favorite theatre ever, The Egyptian in Hollywood (There's no trailer - not sure why, but I find that kind of cool). Having just read the book a few months ago, this is perfect timing!

This is the first of several Beyondfest screenings I'll be attending this year, so that only adds to my fervor. I love Beyondfest. So much so, I used it in one of my stories. Sort of. If anyone out there has read A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror, the first story in the book - Scare Me - is set partially at the Egyptian, and the screening Apple and Lucas are attending is in many ways based on my first experience at Beyondfest - three years ago now if my math is correct - where my friend Missi and I saw an amazing double feature of Evil Dead 35mm and Evil Dead 2, with an interview set in between where Edgar Wright interviewed Bruce Campbell and surprise guest Sam Raimi. Before the show, representatives from Shudder worked the crowd, trying to get people to sign up for the just-launched horror streaming service. I used all that - tweaked it for my nefarious tale of course -  as well as much of the surrounding Hollywood neighborhood - one of my stomping grounds for years now - as a setting for the story. It's one that I am very proud of.

Playlist from yesterday:

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Perturbator - New Model

Perturbator - Terror 404

Waveshaper - Station Nova

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Sunn O))) - 

Brand New - Daisy

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST

Zombi - Shape Shift

Card of the day:

Reading about this card again after not seeing it in a while, I feel this is a harbinger for me. I've been physically hurting for a while, with various issues resurfacing just in time to slow me down. The yoga isn't doing a hell of a lot, but it's doing something. However, while none of my setbacks are serious enough to cause alarm, they do add up to an exhausting daily toll. The Empress seems to suggest I need to nurture myself a bit more, and in a period of withdrawal I should be able to reclaim my health.

2018: June 2nd

I woke up late in the morning and spent a few hours trying to finish off Lords of Chaos; the book has become increasingly unpleasant (not the writing, but the subject matter) and the authors track Black Metal-related atrocities across the globe. It feels as though I'm reading a true crime book, and that's not a genre I dabble in because, frankly, I become too disturbed. At any rate, I may not finish the book, but if I do, I decided I need something to counter balance the negativity. The above musical suite is helping, as is the source of my discovery of it. Years ago David Lynch wrote a book called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. I bought it and was able to shake his hand and have him autograph it - one of those rare autograph opportunities I took advantage of - but never really read it. I'm doing so now, and it's magical. I love this man so much, he has been such a positive, life-affirming influence on me in every way. Reading the book and listening to Andre Previn and the London Philharmonic Orchestra's version of Weber's Adagio for Strings - which Lynch name drops in the book when briefly talking about The Elephant Man as an example of marrying music to picture - is almost too much beauty to reflect on, and it has definitely salvaged my mood after reading about misguided miscreants committing horrendous crimes in the name of non-existent deities.

Playlist from 6/01:

The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
Ghost - Prequelle
Ministry - Animositisomina
Zombi - Shape Shift

Card of the day:

The Fiery aspect of Air. I need to get my arse in gear and express my Will today, because thus far, other than this meager post, all I've done is consume.

2018: May 20th - New Ghost!

Another new song surfaces. I started listening and then decided to wait until the album drops, wanted to post it here though for anyone else interested.

Playlist from 5/19:

Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Drab Majesty - Careless

Card for today:

Interesting juxtaposition, if you look at this card, one of the major visual components beside the Princess herself, is the churning, stormy sky, this can indicate anger, restlessness and negative trauma. I don't directly feel any of that, however I spent a few hours earlier today engrossed in reading Lords of Chaos; while doing so I listened to the audio from a thunderstorm on loop. The book and the storm burrowed their way into my brain; I fell asleep and woke up from a nightmare somewhat shaken. The dream involved a doctor who had an evil man locked up in some kind of photo-prison cell in her home. At some point she realized he had picked the lock and was free. The dream ended with the evil one on the hood of the doctor's car, with her driving into a fence on a kind of pier that ran to the ends of her property, the fence collapsed and the aggressor was thrown into whatever large body of water lay below, but there was the definite panicked intimation that he was not dead and she should hurry out of there.

I've a lot to say about Lords of Chaos, and more specifically Varg from Burzum. He talks in interviews of using Burzum's music to influence others, especially younger fans, to get them to take up his cause, which is a militaristic brand of nationalist medieval satanism. This is insanely removed from what we think of as satanism in the modern day - the goals this entire motley cast of characters continually extol are spreading 'fear and evil,' and they really mean it. It's deceptive; on one hand you can see skinny, somewhat awkward young people carving out an identity for themselves - one that they perceive will make others fear them. This is a counter balance to being 'misfits' and many of us do it, especially those who come up in metal. But here you can see extreme examples of the possible divergent paths, where most of the inner circle of the original Black Metal scene backdown from actually committing the follow-through on the atrocities they preach, and others go through it all the way, refusing to back down, transgressing into murder, arson and mayhem (pun intended). The book is an interesting journey into a pathos we children of the Heavy Metal 80s often dismiss, the idea that people can be influenced to do evil via music.

2018: May 15th 6:15 PM

First, because I've been All-Black Metal, All-the Time, let's do something as a pattern interrupt:



After I finished David Peak's Corpsepaint two nights ago I immediately ordered this:

Back when I worked at Borders, this always caught my eye. I'm so taken with exploring this fascinating subculture right now that I just can't look away, and I wanted some non-fiction to bolster and sustain the high that I still have from Peak's book.

Playlist from yesterday:

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicenter

The Ocean - Aeolian

Venue - Desireena

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Deafheaven - Roads to Judah

Card of the day today was:

An eight. Of course. The number of building. Because I've worked on T12 everyday for two weeks, and Keller and I are really building something, not the story per se, but also a system by which we intend to tell many stories, the next two after this one already slated.