Harmless

 

An oldie but a goodie from Helmet. I've had 1997s Aftertaste in regular rotation lately, and it feels good to reconnect with such a formative album for me. I am hot and cold on everything they did before this, but Aftertaste has blown me away since the first time I heard it, back when Mr. Brown slipped me a dubbed cassette shortly after the album's release. 

---

---

---

NCBD:

A couple of books I'm very excited for on this list. Let's go!

A couple of years back, K and I randomly came across the old Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon we grew up with in the 80s and gave it a whirl. We were both shocked at what we didn't remember about this one - namely, that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future! Way to turn the barbarian tale on its head! And now Jason Aaron is writing a new Thundarr comic for Dynamite! I've been waiting for this one since I first saw the solicitation a few months back, and finally, today, here we are!

A double dose of Barbarism this week! Savage Sword of Conan issue 12 lands and we get another single-issue story from Chris Ryall and Gabriel Rodriguez! Can anything top last month's Liam Sharp? I'm game to find out.

The Nice House By the Sea returns from its "mid-season hiatus," and I realize I'm going to have to re-read the previous six issues before digging into this one. Weekend project. 

Speaking of weekend re-reads, I fully intend to sit down and read all of Event Horizon Dark Descent in one shot now that the final issue is upon us. I didn't love this book (so far, anyway) but then, I like the film less and less the more I watch it. I mean, I still like Event Horizon, it just doesn't quite live up to that first viewing way back when, and looking too closely has revealed some gaps. Still, Sci Fi Horror is fun as hell, and watching Sam Neill take his eyes out in a hell dimension is no exception.

Finally, my first fully on board, subscribed and in my box waiting for me issues of Fraction and Jimenez's Batman, and after last month, I'm chomping at the bit for it. I LOVE this book!!!

---

---

---

Watch:

I've reengaged with Japanese Cinema more over the last year, so when I saw this trailer about a man trapped in an endless subway station, I was immediately interested. Kind of a Japanese Backrooms, but also, this reminds me of Sofia Ajram's novel Coup de Grace, which I read last year (or the year before) and really dug.

I'm quite the fan of stories about people being lost in seemingly endless labyrinths. House of Leaves, In the Walls of Eeryx, No End House... the list goes on and I'm a fan of them all, so I'm excited to add another to that list, and Genki Kawamura's The Exit 8 looks to be just that. Read more about this one over on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right

QOTSA - Lullabies to Paralyze

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

H6LLB6ND6R - OST

Melvins - (a) Senile Animal

Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound

Massive Attack - 100th Window

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Two of Pentacles

• Knight of Swords

• Six of Pentacles

Collaboration of Wills can create a balanced mechanism. No idea what this is trying to say, so let me look a little deeper with the help of Banzhaf & Theler's Keywords for the Crowley Tarot.

Two of Pentacles, combined here with the sharpened intellect of the Knight of Swords may point to paying attention to opposites. There's what I normally do, and then what's the opposite of that? Six of Cups suggests whatever that is, it might be a good idea. 

I Care Because You Do, Wolf Boy

Aphex Twin's 1995 ... I Care Because You Do was once an almost nightly staple of my listening, but it's been quite some time since I'd spun this one. Felt really good to reconnect. 

---

---

---

Watch:

I'm a pretty big fan of a number of Brad Anderson's middle-career films, but at some point, I fell off. Vanishing on 7th Street didn't do for me what I'd hoped, and Anderson's follow-up, The Call, admittedly did not get a fair shake due to my allergic reaction to the lead actress. All that aside, I LOVE Transsiberian and Session 9 - both of which Anderson wrote and directed, and The Machinist holds a special place in my heart despite the twist. When I stumbled across the trailer for upcoming Worldbreaker, I was interested - I don't know that Anderson has done anything like this before, and that alone puts it on my list.

This is getting a theatrical release, but I'm not sure if I'll be getting it here in Clarksville or not. Either way, I'll definitely check it out once I'm able. 

---

---

---

Read:

A few weeks ago I had my local independent book store, Clarksville Book Shoppe, order me a copy of Nat Cassidy's 2025 novel When the Wolf Comes Home. I'd heard a lot of good things of late, and decided I felt like walking into a well-received, recent Horror novel absolutely blind. 

This definitely fit the bill.

Cassiday's prose is sold. Like, SOLID. His ideas are unqiue and, even though a couple things in this one rubbed me a little wrong, overall I really enjoyed it and 100% recommend it to fans of contemporary Horror. 

Not a werewolf novel, but also not entirely not a werewolf novel, the shapeshifting in this book has a very unique mechanism behind it; one that opens the story up to a much larger arc than first apparent. His characters are deeply developed and as real as characters get, and because of that, there are a couple of moments throughout that really hit me hard and made me set the book down before continuing for a day. Some harrowing circumstances befall Nat's characters, and he makes us love them enough that it hurts. 

That's great writing, isn't it?

---

---

---

Playlist:

Radiohead - Kid A

Radiohead - Amnesiac

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

Tool - Aenima

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

The Soft Moon - Criminal

Fever Ray - Eponymous

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime: Tandem

Chicago Underground Quartet - Good Days

The National - High Violet

Aphex Twin - ... I Care Because You Do

Sunn O))) - Metta, Benevolence BBC6 Live: On the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs

QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Roxy Music - Eponymous

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

---

---

---

Card:

One of my favorite cards in the Crowley/Harris Thoth deck, XVII: The Star.

Basically,  a "go for it," situation. 

Electric Wizard LIVE!!!

Here's a nice little 666 injection into your Christmas Holiday. Posted by the Kilkim Žaibu festival. Great channel - check 'em out HERE.

 

---

---

---

Watch:

If there's one subgenre based on location I love, it's Horror set in the Irish countryside. Director Peter Vass's upcoming film Banshee looks to have the quiet atmosphere I love in spades. Check out this trailer:

I'm unfamiliar with Vass and everything about this project, but after watching this, oh do I yearn to know more! You can check out the film's socials via the YouTube link. 

---

---

---

Read:

As I approach the finish line on Isabel Cañas's The Possession of Alba Díaz, I realized that my first read of 2025 is probably going to be a long-overdue re-read of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's classic The Difference Engine. 

I pulled my old beat-up paperback off the shelf a few nights ago and set it aside in preparation. It's easily been 15 years since the last time I read this one, and I think it will help me nail the Victorian England portion of Shadow Play, Book Two, which I'm hip-dip in at the moment and needing some authenticity. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Dreamkid - Daggers

D'Nell - 1st Magic

James Last - Christmas Dancing

Various - I'll Be Home for the Holidays

Bob Rivers - Twisted Christmas

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Vince Guardaldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas OST

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas

Calexico - Second Shift

---

---

---

Card:

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

• XVII: The Star

• XIX: The Sun

• Seven of Pentacles

Hope, clarity and assessment. That pain turned out to be another example of the bane of my middle age - gas. I'm alright now and ready to turn the volume up on my eating and drinking over the next few days. 

The Return of... Plague Bringer!!!

In celebration of the fact that Plague Bringer is back and playing their first show in ten years at this year's Forever Deaf Fest in Chicago on April 1st and I grabbed tickets HERE.

These guys have such a small internet presence. Thanks to the Spreading the Plague YouTube channel HERE for posting this video. Lots of great stuff on this channel - go check it out.

---

---

---

NCBD:

What a great week! Let's go:

I really enjoyed issue 3 of David and Maria Lapham's Good as Dead, so I'm charged for #4! This book has some really interesting things going on in the background, and apparently, that's about to go off this issue!

This bi-weekly schedule for GIJOE's Dreadnok War storyline has really given the book the boost it needed! We've got major The Hills Have Eyes vibes in the outback with everyone's favorite grape soda addicts, and now that we've gotten an almost otherworldly, animalistic view of Cobra Commander, the pull on this one has strengthened for me quite a bit. 

I recently covered Tynion and Walsh's Exquisite Corpses on The Dread Broadcast because I think it's a book people need to know about. 

It feels like it's been forever since the first issue of Dan Jurgens, Mike Perkins and Mike Spicer's follow-up to last year's Bat-Noir, Bat-Man: First Knight, which I wrote about HERE. So far, I dig this new series just as much as the first; I could literally read one of these every year and be pretty happy. Batman fits 1930s Noir so well, and these creators really flourish in the style. 

---

---

---

Watch:

Finally! The trailer I saw for Damian McCarthy's new film Hokum has hit YouTube, and I can share it! I know, I know - I don't normally like to watch trailers. I saw this before Sisu: Road to Revenge last month and was left jaw agape - another fantastic Neon trailer that shows us so much without telling us anything at all. Now that's how trailers should be!

Especially for McCarthy's films, which, to date, with Caveat and Oddity, are extremely unique and unnerving creations. Hokum - out May 1st - looks to be no different. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Bluekarma - The Information

The Afghan Whigs - Gentleman

Frank Black and the Catholics - One More Road for the Hit

Ritual Howls - Ruin

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Plaguebringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

Orville Peck - Pony

Radiohead - Kid A

Radiohead - OK Computer

Dreamkid - Daggers

Eldov - A Story of Darkness and Light

Mondo Decay - Nun Gun

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Four of Wands

• Seven of Wands

• Eight of Cups

Don't allow harmony to convince you to drop your guard.