From the just-released penulimate Godflesh record, Decay, which you can order from Relapse Records HERE.
This went directly to the top of my list for favorite albums so far this year, and I doubt anything still to come will unseat it. This track in particular, with its heavy breathing at the onset, really speaks to where JKB is at this point. Or so it would seem from an outsider's perspective.
Kudos on the packaging for this, as well. The record came with a slip mat, sticker and poster. All the bells and whistles, as my grandmother might have said (had she been into Godflesh, which she was not).
NCBD:
A nice, easy week, but thrilling nonetheless:
The Amazing Spider-Man issue 1000. Wow. I think the first issue of this book I ever bought was #289, so that gives you some perspective. I have zero idea what is going on, continuity-wise, in this book. Doesn't matter. As always, I'm taping in and will tap back out after. But I couldn't miss this one.
I LOVED the first issue of Rick Remender and Steve Epting's Hammerfist SO MUCH that I've been thinking about it all month.
Read:
I'm all but tuned out on Shudder of late, and all my issues (see HERE) are only exacerbated by the fact that it's been obvious to me they've slowed down on funding good, new films. There was a time a few years ago where Shudder originals landed constantly, like one a month. And most were excellent, even if they weren't all to my taste. I'm not sure that's true anymore. This, however, looks worth waiting for.
first, there's praise from Stephen King on this one currently circulatingwhere he compares the film to "The Thing meets Silence of the Lambs."
Second, it's co-written and directed by Jordan Downey, whose Headhunter I bought when it came out after we covered it on what I'm realizing now is a very early episode of The Horror Vision. That's enough for me.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral
John Corigliano - Altered States OST
Glenn Danzig - Black Aria
Danzig - Danzig III
Godflesh - Decay
Fear - Live... For the Record
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 04: The Emperor
• Ten of Pentacles
• Page of Wands
Imposing structure only goes so far - I'm lacking a flash of inspiration in my writing this new and unexpected section of Shadow Play Book 2. Hoping that comes on soon.
From their 2023 album Disharmonium: Nahab, which I'm really still trying to make sense of three years after release.
Both Disharmonium albums function a bit like hallucinogenic substances to me; I put them on when I need to shake up my Euclidean-trained brain chemistry and see around the corners I've outlined my life with. With the recent announcement of a new BAN release coming this winter, I was hoping for the third part in this series. Not sure that's what we're getting, but regardless, the news sent me back to these for a while.
Watch:
Friday night, I hit the Regal for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil. Saturday night I went back with K for a second viewing (preceded by a second viewing of Hope, which has moved into my #2 spot for the year).
After two viewings of Resident Evil, I'll start by stating this up front - I have zero interest in this as a R.E. movie; my excitement is entirely for a new Cregger film. So how was it?
Zach Cregger has such a unique, consistent style. There must be so much of his personality in his films, because those definitely serve as a through line.
Zach Cregger has such a unique, consistent style. There must be so much of his personality in his films, because those definitely serve as a through line. I read recently that he removed all the jokes he originally had in the script for this, however, there are still so many "exhale" moments. A lot of it is a relatability that Austin Abrams brings to the film. The entire ordeal flows a bit like a video game; there is an escalating series of "problem solving" situations Abrams' character must overcome as he treks deeper into the countryside surrounding the ground zero of Raccoon City, and he does it swearing and mumbling and flinching all the way. His Bryan is a slacker with an important decision in the background of this one terrible night, and although that B-story is waaaay in the background, it helps guide him through one terrifying event after the other, until he reaches the "final level" and shit really gets F'ked up.
As always, my suggestions is to see this one in the theatre. I'll definitely be having a second viewing before the week is out.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes at Midnight
Anthrax - Curium Perficio
Blut Aus Nord - Triunity
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber I
Sleep - Hemispheres
Ministry - Singularity (single)
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Final Light - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Wands
• Nine of Swords
• Eight of Cups
A breakthrough of Will short-circuited (or perhaps jumpstarted by?) a disaster of intellect. A misunderstanding that will emotionally transform a scene from average (or less than) to something powerful.
A direct reference to the section of Shadow Play Book 2 that I'm currently working on. I've taken a divergent path with two of the characters, completely inspired by Stephen Kings' Dark Tower books, and it's been a difficult road. A lot of it is not quite working yet, so this just tells me I'll have to fail big to get the breakthrough I'm looking for.
My favorite track (so far) from Arab Strap's just-released ninth studio album Half-Told Tales. This one snuck up on me, so I haven't really had a chance to give it a proper listen, but this first time through? God DAMN! This could be a contender.
Last night I sat down in my local big box theatre and was treated to one of the best theatrical experiences of the year. I'm talking about Na Hong-jin's new film Hope. I'm posting a trailer here, but I'd advise you just forego this and go see Hope on the big screen it is a BANGER!
When I posted about this previously, I mentioned that the "Quiet Place" vibes the trailer gave me were probably specifically achieved for the trailer, i.e. what better way to roll out a Korean monster movie in the theatre than by alluding to something that did well and could be somewhat comparable. I dig the two A Quiet Place films I've seen quite a bit, but this is definitely not that. Hope is its own thing, and I absolutely loved it. So much fun!
This entire film is about momentum; once it starts, it really goes hard, with only a few "lulls" in the fast-paced action. There's next to no exposition thrown at you, and the ending comes out of nowhere. This has already made it into my top five of the year, and I'm hoping I can go back and see it one more time before it leaves the big screen.
Watch:
A double watch today, before I get too far away from last weekend's viewing experiment to properly mention it.
A few months back, I wrote about how many Warner Brothers DVDs from 2008-2010 were manufactured substandard materials and had all largely gone bad. I also wrote about how I'd discovered via online discussion threads about this travesty that there exists and email whereby you can contact the company and they will replace your discs.
That turned out to be bullshit.
I'm rather attached to the packaging for the Blade Runner five-disc box set that Mr. Brown gave me circa 2011, so I ended up tracking down the set on Blu-Ray from eBay and swapping the BR discs into the DVD packaging. Next up, had to take a test toast, and I figured what better excuse to finally sit down over the course of a couple of days and watch all major versions of the film for comparison's sake.
I was extremely surprised by the results.
First, the Theatrical Cut: This ended up being an aborted attempt at watching the film the way I saw it first, way back as a little kid.
Even back in the 90s when new versions sans voice over were surfacing, I defended (not preferred) this original cut simply out of nostalgia and, in hindsight, because the narration was probably the first time I was introduced to that particular Noir trope which does work well on occasion (of all the dames in all the offices, she walks into mine).
Watching this now - or perhaps more accurately attempting to watch this - I just couldn’t do it. There are a bunch of hinky moments in Ford’s performance I see now that I was either previously blind to or just didn’t want to admit - this film’s iconic footprint allows it to hold itself up by the bootstraps in A LOT of respects - and the narration, which at times feels forced, tired, half-arsed and downright goofy, only accentuates that. So I turned this off, waited a day and starter back in on the Director’s Cut. Something about this viewing or the Director’s Cut felt off. Part of it was I started it after waking up in the middle of the night, made it to JF’s intro and fell back asleep. Finished later that day, and it felt unfamiliar and a little hokey. Especially some of Ford’s mannerisms.
Interruptions are never good for watching film, but the answer would reveal itself upon my subsequent viewing of the Final Cut, which is definitely my preferred version.
Director's Cut: This viewing or the Director’s Cut felt off. Part of it was due to the fact that I started the viewing after waking up in the middle of the night. I made it to about where William Sanderson's JF shows up and welcomes Darryl Hannah's Pris into his apartment* and then fell back asleep. I finished the viewing later that day, but something about staring it in the middle made it feel overall unfamiliar and a little hokey. Especially some of Ford’s mannerisms.
Interruptions are never good for watching film, but the answer would reveal itself upon my subsequent viewing of the Final Cut, which is definitely my preferred version. (* Where's his other brother Darryl?).
Final Cut: This has been the version of the film I've watched in the last twenty-five years or so, so maybe it's just deep-rooted familiarity, but THIS feels right. I mean, compared to some folks' fandom with this film, I've probably only seen it six or seven times in my life, and probably four of five of those were either Theatrical or Director's cuts, but this Final Cut feels so cohesive, and one of the big factors I landed on for that in thinking about it is the color grading. It's perfect!
Playlist:
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
Windhand - Eternal Return
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Yerusalem - The Sublime
Fear - Live... For the Record
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosphy
Arab Strap - Half-Told Tales
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
The Damage Manual - Special Edition
Dance with the Dead - Malombra
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• Seven of Pentacles
• Page of Pentacles
Baggage. Frugal.
I have a ghost, or a demon, or a virus. I don't feel like I spend an exorbitant amount of my money on the amazing but admittedly frivolous things that I populate my space with - music, movies, books, comics, plastic, etc. I spend more than I probably should from time to time, but I've looked at the numbers and it just doesn't add up, the fact that I have such a hard time saving money. So, for this pull, I did something I almost never do. I held an exact question in my mind when I shuffled and chose. And I'd say the result is pretty on the nose. In the grimoire, I actually have "A difficult period in material life" as the entry for the Seven of Pentacles. I have "Baggage" among the qualifiers for the Page of Wands, and I have "Frugal" for the Page of Pentacles. Plus, two of the three cards are Pentacles, i.e. disks, i.e. material concerns.
So what does this tell me, other than this is an uphill climb?
Thanks to a big tip-off from Mr. Brown, I realized that Oklahoma City's Chat Pile dropped a new album this past Friday. I was really hot on their first album, God's Country, back in 2022, then the band kind of fell off my radar. This new one puts them back on in a BIG way; I'd have to say, this is the band I'd vote most likely to take up the mantle currently occupied by Godflesh in my life. With the penultimate Godflesh record arriving in just a few weeks, and the final one coming next year, I have a feeling Chat Pile is more than likely going to enter my regular rotation and stay there.
You can order the new Chat Pile record, Who Loves the Sun, HERE.
NCBD:
A nice mix of the IP stuff and original series this week.
This is homework from my DwC cohost Shin. Apparently this fascimile is the book where the Joker went from being the Cesar Romero version to a more psychopathic, modern version.
The grand finale of the Event Horizon sequel! I've really enjoyed this book, considerably more than the prequel, but it will be cool in a few months to have the final series in this triptych begin and pave the way for an eventual full read-through centered around the film
Underwater action is always appreciated in the GIJOE universe, and this cover has me excited for it!
Odin took a little hiatus but is back. There's so much I love about this book, and dead nazis is only the start! Whatever nether realm these characters have found themselves in is creepy as hell, and this issue's cover is freaking me out just looking at it!
I've been waiting for this penultimate issue of Chris Condon, Andrew Enrich and Charlie Adlard's Of the Earth of a month and hot damn I cannot wait to dig in!
Thundercracker as part of Superion. Robert Kirkman continues to do all kinds of awesome new stuff with these characters.
Watch:
I saw Fall 2: Deadpoint this past Monday. This is the sequel to 2024's Fall, which I did not see. Honestly, I initially assumed I would skip this, too, until I saw the trailer on last month's Dread Broadcast (watch our reaction HERE) and realized, my lack of gusto for this might be a defense mechanism. I mean, supernatural Horror is essentially comfort food at this point, but this? Absolutely terrifying.
The film on the big screen, at least, is just as terrifying and tense as I'd thought it might be. This is going to open a new line of thinking for me: rethink the Horror I dismiss. Next up will be October's adaptation of Daniel Kraus' Whale Fall, which also was an initial dismissal, but subsequently makes me feel really uncomfortable.
Playlist:
Alabama Shakes - I Must Be Dreaming
Marilyn Manson - One Assassination Under God Chapter 2
Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple
Chat Pile - Who Loves the Sun
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
Jim Williams - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched OST
Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia - Front Door Doxologies
Fear - Live... For the Record
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - Enhanced Methods of Questioning
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Cups
• Ace of Wands
• Knight of Pentacles
Follow the heart, as it will lead to breakthroughs that. Just don't be afraid to work for it (or through it, if there's pain involved).
I'm not really sure what this is trying to say, but I have an idea it might not be for me at all.
Take about stumbling across something you never expected. Skulking around on Bandcamp last Friday, I found this track from Erykah Badu & The Alchemist's album Before the World Blows Up. I was instantly hooked. I backed off a bit after an initial full listen to the overall album - I'm sorry, but it's pretty hard to take anyone seriously when they're still dropping N-bombs, especially on a modern soul record. There are a few other unfortunate instances of hip hop tropes that gum up the album's flow for me, but overall, this is pretty freakin' solid.
Watch:
By sheer chance, I read about Glenn McQuaid's new film, The Restoration at Grayson Manor in one of the most recent issues of Fangoria magazine shortly before ordering McQuaid's 2008 film I Sell the Dead during a recent Vinegar Syndrome sale, not realizing the latter was by the same filmmaker at all. I'd seen I Sell the Dead back when it first came out on video in the through-the-mail Netflix days, had thought about it now and again, and was excited to see it get a new transfer and release via VS's Glass Eye Pix/IFC partner labels.
The Fangoria article definitely put Grayson Manor on my radar, and now I'm happy to see the possibility of a wide theatrical release. Full disclosure - I only watched about twenty-five seconds of the trailer but that's all I needed. There's something about the overall style here, combined with McQuaid's humor and the idea of "hand horror" in an Irish country manor that all combines to make me think this is going to be a great one.
Playlist:
Young Widows - Decayed: Ten Years of Cities, Wounds, Lightness and Pain
Godflesh - In All Languages
Matthew Pusti - Onslaught OST
Erykah Badu & The Alchemist - Before TheWorld Blows
Godflesh - New Flesh In Dub Vol. 1
Godflesh - Post Self
Chat Pile - Who Loves The Sun
The Cramps - Gravest Gravy
Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta
The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX
Isaac Hayes - The Isaac Hayes Movement
Miles Davis - Ascender pour l'échafaud
Chat Pile - God's Country
Lustmord & Dave Lombardo - Paleomagnetic Resonance (pre-release single)
Purest Form - Resistance EP
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Dance with the Dead - Malombra
Ghost - Skeleta
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple
Pino Donaggio - Her Private Hell OST
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast
Iggy and The Stooges - Raw Power (1973 David Bowie Mix)
Chelsea Wolfe- She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Alabama Shakes - I Must Be Dreaming
Orville Peck - Bronco
Steely Dan - Aja
Card:
Back to my trusty old Thoth deck this morning:
• 7 of Disks - Failure
• Ace of Cups
• 3 of Cups: Abundance
I need to change something proven. It will cause an upset that will feel like a failure at first, but will eventually lead to a breakthrough that will make my heart soar.
It's never a great thing to see a card like the 7 of Disks at first, but context always softens it. In The Book of Thoth, Crowley briefly breaks this card down as a warning as to what happens when all work stops. Dreams can die here. Thus, it takes emotion and will to keep the thread going and make something out of the nothing that sloth offers as a reprieve to working.
I love the obvious writing ones, that come directly after a session I can relate them back to.
The penultimate track on Soundgarden's 1991 masterpiece, Badmotorfinger, "Holy Water" always ushers in a bittersweet feeling for me. I love the track, but it signals the outro of the record, with "New Damage" following to wrap up what has been one of the most satisfying listens in my lifetime.
Watch:
Penny Lane is Dead has been on my radar via word-of-mouth from my friend and Horror Vision cohost Anthony (That's King Butcher if you're on the IG), and without knowing anything specific, I've been wondering when it will reach us (and if it will receive a theatrical release). Here's the trailer that just dropped:
Honestly, I shut this trailer down by the time the Shudder logo popped up. I don't need to see anything beyond those initial, frenzied flashings - I'm in.
Playlist:
The Caretaker - Theoretically pure anterograde amnesia
Uniform & The Body - Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back Again
Drain - ... Is Your Friend
Judas Priest - Greatest Hits
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Ministry - The Last Sucker
Ween - Bring Out the Foos: Live 1996
Róisín Murphy - Overpowered
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
Napalm Death - Resentment Is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes)
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
RIP. I don't give these ladies nearly the spin time they deserve. I'll never forget the first time I heard "Shit List"-a friend's car one afternoon, senior year. Everything about it blew me away. Everything about these ladies always blew me away, from their good nature at being referred to as "the wives of Metallica" back in the 90s while on tour, to their heavy fucking riffs and take-no-shit attitude.
Finch's bass really made L7's sound. That low end, and how she positioned it so perfectly between Donita Sparks' and Suzi Gardner's guitars and Demetra Plakas' drums, just made them stand out. You can make sonic comparisons to Mudhoney and Melvins, but that's more era than anything else.
I went back to their second record for this post because Jennifer takes lead vox, it kicks, and I love the good-natured (?) shade she throws at some of their, uh, contemporaries. Hahaha.
Watch:
Ti West's next film is a version of A Christmas Carol? Really? Well, I'm there. And look - Johnny Depp!
I'd love Depp to make a comeback, and can think of no better Director for him to do it with than West. I'll definitely have my arse in a seat for Ebenezer come November 11th. This will also fit in nicely with the newfound proclivity I've exhibited the last few years for British Ghost Stories around Yule.
Read:
After finishing Wizard and Glass last weekend, I took a short detour from the Dark Tower books to read some Giallo! First up, P.J. Thorndyke's Five Kisses From A Blasphemous Nun - best. Title. EVER!!!
This novel NAILS Giallo! A fantastic mystery that revolves around a series of grisly murders, a possibly reincarnated or possession-happy nun accused of heresy, and the Italian Fotoromanzi business. I really dug this one for its attention to detail, which in turn made it a breezy read (2 days) and completely immersive.
Next, after reading David Sodergren's Death Spelllast year, I'd been wanting to pick up another of his books, and Dead Girl Blues fit perfectly with the theme, although the author admits that while the novel began as a Giallo, it morphed as he wrote. Sodergren ends up coining the term Slasher Noir for it, and I think that's perfect.
This one is mesmerizing in its violence and depravity. Again, two days to blow through it (both work days). Not for the squeamish, but worth the work. I'm shifting back to the Dark Tower books soon, but there's definitely more Sodergren in my future!
Playlist:
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight (pre-release singles)
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Crystal Spiders - Metanoia
Holy Fawn - Death Spells
Obsession - Methods of Madness
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
L7 - Smell the Magic
L7 - Bricks Are Heavy
L7 - Scatter the Rats
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Pat Benatar - Little Too Late (single)
Journey - I'll Be Alright Without You (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Napalm Death covering Slab. With backup singers! This shit is nuts. A big, thick slab of sonic knuckle in your face to kick off Wednesday.
From 2022's Reesentment is Always Seismic (A Final Throw of Throes). I don't know how it's taken me until age 50 to get into Napalm Death, but it happened.
NCBD:
A couple of "Maybes" I'm including today for various reasons. I'll explain as I go. Big week if I bring all this home.
So, apparently, I'd been buying this off the shelf, neglecting to sub, so I never ended up with issue 3. I dig it, but the books are starting to add up, so I'm tempted to let Thundarr go. We'll see.
The end of the series. I can't say I've completely followed everything that's happened in Liam Sharpe's Spawn: The Dark Ages, but it's been profound to say the least. The homage to Wrightson's Frankenstein really helped win me over, but really, this man just makes beautiful, challenging art. Who would have ever thought you'd find that in a Spawn book?
Condon and Adlard? Take my money.
Misommar meets Green Room? Really? That sounds insane. Add to it that Tynion is writing it and I'm in.
Okay, I've seen this "Dire Wraith" technology or whatever it is (The Hallucinatory green stuff on the cover there) in the solicitations for some of the recent figures - all passes for me - and I'm curious to see how this goes down in the pages of GIJOE. I'm also loving the idea that Crystal Ball will be yet another independent faction in this total melee of factions. That's this book's strong point. It's not just Joe and Cobra. It's at least half a dozen agendas if not more by now (Arashikage, Dreadnoks, Raptor, Blud, etc).
One of the funest books of the year, and one that has such a 'Summer vibe." Why? I don't know - maybe because when I was a kid in the 80s, summer sometimes meant hanging out at an arcade with friends, playing Double Dragon, and if there's one major pop culture entry in Death Fight Forever's DNA, it's Double Dragon. Jeez - just saying Double Dragon brings on a super strong nostalgia. No wonder I love this book. Which, incidentally, is SO much more insane than DD could ever hope to be.
Writer Pornsak Pichetshote's graphic novel Infidel from a few years back was one of the genuinely frightening comics I'd read in years, so to see his name attached to the Absolute Green Arrow series being described as "A Horror book" really piqued my interest.
Read:
Last night I drove up to the Belcourt in Nashville to see Taratoa Stappard's Mārama.
I knew zero about this going in. Mārama takes place in 1859, North Yorkshire, where Mārama has traveled from her native New Zealand, the home of her Maori ancestors, to meet a man who claims to know her origins. Mārama is an orphan who never knew her parents, so the pull is strong.
I have seen this described online as a Maori Gothic Horror, and that pretty much hits the nail on the head. This is a gorgeous film, but it is also infuriating. Colonialism is ripe for remembering, with so many in our modern age eager to either celebrate the worst history has to offer or ignore it. Ariāna Osborne is magical and intense as the lead; her unshakeable identity and fury are a balm for her would-be oppressors.
Definitely support this on the big screen if you can - the costumes, sets and camera will work pay off dividends if you do.
Playlist:
Émilie Leviensaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Atticus Derrickson - The Black Phone 2 OST
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST King Woman - Celestial Blues
The Sword - Age of Winters
The Doors - L.A. Woman
The Bangles - All Over the Place
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Palesketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed
Jesu - Lifeline EP
Jesu - Silver EP
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Blackbraid - Celestial Womb EP
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Burial - Untrue
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 20: Judgment
• Nine of Cups
• 17: The Star
Renewal and fulfillment. I feel this after last. Genuinely - driving up to Nashville later at night is a pleasant drive, and sitting in a theatre I love watching a film I knew nothing about really helped put me back in my preferred perspective. Top that off with a short but powerful writing session beforehand, and yes, today I feel renewed.
I'm on the fence on this one. While I love Loathe's 2020, I Let It in, and It Took Everything, the album cuts its Nü Metal elements with enough atmospherics and melody that I don't really notice them. This on the other hand, while being insanely heavy, feels a little more outside my Nü tolerance.
We'll see. As usual, it's never a good idea to make a decision about a single without the context of the full album informing that decision.
That said, I just realized that this is actually the second track released from the upcoming album, A Stranger to You, out July 17th. You can pre-order the album HERE, and the previously released track, "Gifted Every Strength," is actually a lot more promising in my opinion. So the verdict is still out.
Watch:
You know, there are more and more shark movies every year, and although they terrify me, I guess I'm the guy who just has trouble taking any shark movie seriously other than Jaws. That's not entirely true, but it's not entirely untrue either. Giant squid, though?
Holy f*cking nightmare fuel!!!
I really hope this hits a theatre near me. I think seeing this great big honkin' Kraken (CG, yes, but that's fine in this case, as I'd hate to think of the animal wranglers or, for that matter, actors having to deal with an actual giant squid.
Playlist:
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts
Low Cut Connie - Livin in the USA (pre-release singles)
Primus - Tales from the Punchbowl
Various - The New (playlist from Jacob)
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞
Bryce Miller - City Depths
Living Nudes - My World Exploded
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Drug Church - Prude
Amigo the Devil - Born Against
Them Are Us Too - Part Time Punks Session
MadLove - White With Foam
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Card:
One card from my Thoth deck:
A reminder that the only good reason to do most things has a root cause analysis of Love.
I realized recently that I never posted anything from Gylt's latest album, In 1000 Agonies I Exist. You can grab this over on the band's Bandcamp page. Both this and 2024's I Will Commit A Holy Crime: Tandem are fantastic records that infiltrated my regular rotation last year after my trip back home to L.A., when friends first played these guys for me. I would very much like to see Gylt live at some point.
Watch:
I caught the late show for Damian McCarthy's Hokum last Thursday night. I've been all but salivating for this one. Here's the 'final' trailer, released last week.
So how was it? Did I get what I wanted? Oh my god, yes!
Hokum is an excellent ghost story, and it's about haunted people as much as it is about a haunted place. The locations, as with all McCarthy's films, are gorgeous beyond compare. There are some legitimately frightening sequences here. One in particular, involving a circle around a four-poster bed, was the first example of a filmmaker creating a sustained sequence of fear in years.
That's my favorite, and it is rare. It's just really difficult to scare an adult with a ghost or monster movie when just living in this world means we operate with a low-grade level of sustained fear 24/7. But McCarthy pulls it off beautifully.
There are also some really great jump scares here. One in particular really got me.
Playlist:
John Cale - Fear
John Cale - Slow Dazzle
The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses
Portishead - Third
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
The Soft Moon - Criminal
The Misfits - Walk Among Us
Electric Youth and Pilot Priest - Come True OST
Corrosion of Conformity - Good God/Baad Man
Frank Black and the Catholics - One More Road for the Hit
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Beach House - Bloom
Ghost - Ceremony and Devotion
NIN - The Slip
Gylt - I Will Commit a Holy Crime: Tandem
Slow Crush - Thirst
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XV: The Devil
• Eight of Cups
• King of Wands
Adhering to your own dogma will drain your vitality, so have the presence of mind to recognize your own bullshit and subvert it.
Direct reference to a new project I've dubbed Film50.
Writing this Tuesday at 11L12 AM CST. Starting my first morning on the Southside with Black Sabbath's Paranoid. This is a regular ritual when I return to the soil from whence I came - Sabbath helps me reconnect to this area; I literally feel the harmonization singing in my blood.
Watch:
Yesterday, my Horror Vision cohost Missi and I hit a local big-box to see Julia Ducournau's new film, Alpha. I walked in knowing NOTHING and, as usual, that was the best way to go in.
Alpha is an arduous journey that had me squirming and contorting in my seat for its entire run time. The subject matter was a surprise to me, as was the unrelenting twist of the mundane into horrific body horror beyond almost what I could stand. It's not a gory film or a disturbing film in any capacity I could have expected. My elevator pitch would be, "Requiem for a Dream done by David Cronenberg if he were French." That's a bit of a cop out, but most elevator pitches are. Suffice it to say, this will easily be one of the 'best' films I see this year.
NCBD:
I am out of town, and so I won't be bringing any of my books home to read this week. I will be swinging into Amazing Fanasy sometime this week, so there may be an addendum post, but here's all the great stuff I will have waiting for me upon my return to Clarksville:
I said this on a recent episode of Drinking with Comics, but it kind of blows my mind that for as long as I've been a devoted, weekly comic reader (since July of 1986), forty years on, most of my pull list are titles based on 80s childhood IPs that I love. There have certainly been titles for all of these characters running most of those forty years, but it wasn't until Robert Kirkman (of course) acquired them that I actually started reading them.
Continuing the longest-running continuity the Turtles have ever had! I know they zeroed out the count back in 2024, but I still look at this by the 'Legacy' number, which would be issue 177. And while there's definitely a modicum of status quo creeping back in (Splinter's alive (I think), the four brothers are back together as a team (I think!), all the Jenika and mutanttown characters have been moved to their own books (which I don't read), I'm still pretty pleased with how this is going.
On our way to issue 50! No lie - I'm going to have to reread a lot of these "history" issues, but that's fine. SIKTC remains a modern, non-childhood favorite. In fact, my childhood might not have made it out of this book's world alive!
Tim Seely, Ryan O'Nan, Paolo Armitano and crew's Pretty Hate Machine will be my first comic from Mad Cave Studios, and how could I not buy this? Look at that cover - gnarly! And then, what was the other eye catcher... oh yeah. The title! Naming comics of movies/novels off of popular music titles is a tricky gambit, but I will give this one a fair shake because... finger knives!
Speaking of needing a reread to reorient myself, year. That's this one, too. Regardless, can't wait to jump back in and reexperience all the steeping paranoia and terror that is The House At... series.
Last week's Baroness one-shot that kicked off the month-long Silent Missions "Event" exceeded my expectations by a mile. I've always loved the Crimson Guards - especially Larry Hama's CGs with their plastic surgery, swappable domestic identities - so I'm fully expecting this to be on par.
And we close this week with the latest issue of Larry Hama's long-running ARAH. Last issue was probably my favorite Joe comic in a long time, and that makes sense. I dig the more fantastical elements of the Energon Universe Joe book, but nothing beats that time-tested Hama realism. While I haven't read this book since circa 1991, coming back to it with issue 300 showed me that some more SciFi elements had snuck in here, too, and it's always great to get something that reminds me of why I loved this book as a kid.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Blood Mother - The Night Fires (single)
Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime: Tandem
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
Jozef Van Wissem - Praise Shall Sound From Shore To Shore... (single)
Afghan Whigs - House of I (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• VII: The Chariot
• Pince of Wands
• Princess of Wands
Fast action results in swift and positive results.
I am waaay behind on posting new music. First up: Drug Church dropped a new single last week, and here's hoping a new record isn't far behind. I finally get to see these guys in May and I cannot wait!
Watch:
Last night, K and I hit the Regal for the premiere of They Will Kill You. Here's a trailer:
How was it? This is the movie to beat this year. I will be very surprised if anything can match this (and what a great year it is that I've already said that twice since January 1st, and it's not even the end of March yet!).
This is kind of Kill Bill meets Ready or Not meets Rosemary's Baby. That's not exactly right, but it'll give you an idea what you're in for. If you're interested in elaboration, there's a widget in the upper right-hand corner of this page with the latest episode of The Horror Vision, where we give you our spoiler-free, right out of the theatre review.
Playlist:
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Mountain Realm - Shadowlorn
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Rebirth Brass Band - Why You Worried 'bout Me? (single)
Rebirth Brass Band - Move Your Body
James Brown - Funky People Vol. 3
Faith No More - Angel Dust
High on Fire - Electric Messiah
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
Atticus Derrickson - Black Phone 2 OST
Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Fever Ray - Eponymous
The Mystery Lights - Purgatory
Dead Man's Bones - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Note: This isn't a proper spread, but a display of Court Cards.
Let's take a look at the Court Cards for a moment, because I feel like talking about Tarot - or more accurately perhaps, I feel like thinking about it and then writing down some of those thoughts.
Knights and Queens - Male and Female energy, respectively. Knights correlate to Will, creation, and cunning. A force of Will that can overcome or be used instead of Violence. "The only reason to master violence is to abolish it." Queens correlate to pleasure, passion and emotion. Knights are Wands, Queens are cups. There's also the sexual metaphor here, as Wands being penetrative and Cups receptive.
Princes and Princesses, or Kings and Princesses if you're most non-Thoth. The Prince or King is brute force, lacking the cunning to abolish violence, hence the correlation to Swords or Intellect. This is why I'm doing this today - I always hit a blind spot with the Prince/Sword connection because of the Intellect thing. Princesses correlate to Malkuth, the Earthly realm, logistics. I handle Princesses in my day job, and that's not exactly a faulty way to say it, because when you coordinate logistics for other people, they often behave like Princesses (Divas).
A lot of Godflesh this past weekend after seeing the following post on Justin K. Broadrick's IG. I find it sadly indicative of the age we live in that a man with a serious health condition needs to hesitate to inform his fans of a situation such as this with the expectation of retaliatory comments. I, for one, will be crushed to see Godflesh go; however, Broadrick has many other projects and I would rather he err on the side of his continued health than risk disaster continuing. Also, if you listen to the opening vocals of this lead-in track from 2017's Post Self, you can hear the strain this man still puts on his body while recording vocals. It's awesome to behold, but also no real surprise that as he ages, this kind of exertion would become a health concern.
This past Thursday night, I did another double feature at the local cinema. First up was Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride. This was a treat; I can't tell you how many times I sat through the trailers for this film in the theatre, but the film turns out to be a lot more than either version of the preview intimates. Maggie is destined for the marketing tag, "... visionary Director..." and it fits. I knew within the first five minutes that A) there was A LOT about this film I had not anticipated and B) as a filmmaker, MG's style is singular and strong.
Afterward, I drove K home, recorded a spoiler-free review with Missi for The Horror Vision, and then drove back to the theatre for a 10:55 PM showing of Rod Blackhurst's Dolly. Turns out, 11:00 PM was the perfect time to view this one in a mostly empty theatre. Creepy A.F. doesn't even begin to describe this film!
Ostensibly a new take on the classic Slasher formula, the thing I really loved about this one was how much the sequences inside the killer's home felt like a Puppet Combo game, specifically, Don't Go in the House and Nun Massacre. Two of my favorites.
Blackhurst has to be a Puppet Combo fan - there are first-person shots from hiding beneath a bed and a sequence where the final girl - Fabianne Therese - searches through dresser drawers and the like. It was just spot on! Fantastic performances all around, and also, one of the gnarliest jaw-related practical FX I've seen.
Playlist:
Deftones - B-Sides and Rarities
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Volume 1
Godflesh - Purge
sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)
Deliverance - Neon Chaos in a Junk-Sick Dawn
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Dub
Godflesh - Post Self
Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate
Psychedelic P*rn Crumpets - Pogo Rodeo
Melvins - Houdini
Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I
Deftones - private music
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Cups
• Five of Pentacles
• Three of Wands
Tap into your inner fears and transmute them into something strong.
Interesting. The idea here is taking something from the real world that frightens me - let's face it, only the real world frightens me - and use my Will to turn it into something strong. Something known.
Also, not sure I've drawn the Three of Wands on this deck before. Gorgeous fucking card (like every other card in this deck!)
