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. 

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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. 

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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

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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 Dead Take the A Train Straight Through the Spider Labyrinth

November is nearly over, and I realized I have not posted any Opeth yet. For that matter, I hadn't even listened to them until whatever day last week I began this post. Back around 2006/2007, Opeth became a big winter band for me, with the time change and early night that directly follows Halloween a welcome signifier that it's time to crack out Deliverance, Blackwater Park and the Candlelight years.

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Watch:

I did a bit of online Black Friday shopping last week. Nothing huge, but there were a few titles from boutique Blu-Ray labels I haunt online that I could not pass up. 

First up, Synapse Films has a 4K restoration of one of my all-time favorite films, Mike Mendez's The Convent. I have no interest in the 4K, but the release includes a standard Blu-Ray, and I've been waiting some time for this one to get a proper clean-up and re-release:

Next, and this is a somewhat blind buy, one of Severin Films' secret titles for their Black Friday sale is Gianfranco Giagni's 1988 nightmare The Spider Labyrinth. This is one I've never seen, but I've seen a certain amount of buzz steadily build for it in the backwaters of the Horror Community, with Italian Filmofiles clamoring for a proper digital release (which the film never received before now). Check out the trailer below, and although I've become fairly anti-spoiler, I'm pretty sure there's no way to spoil the absolute madness of this one.

 

Finally, although this isn't a new title, it's one that's been on my radar for a while, and after watching Michael Venus' 2020 film Schlaf (Sleep), I forked over the dough for this gorgeous release from Arrow Video; for $20 how could I not?

If I were to elevator pitch this flick to you, I'd say it's kind of a cross between Anthony Scott Burns' Come True and the possibilities I saw inherent in Stewart Thorndike's Bad Things (which admittedly did not work for me, but had some very interesting potential insofar as location and plot). 

Here are the purchase links if anyone is interested:

Synapse Films: The Convent

Severin Films: The Spider Labyrinth

Arrow Video: Sleep

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Read:

Richard Kadrey has released two books this year, and I've been wanting to read both, so after finishing Michael Wehunt's Greener Pastures, I slipped into The Dead Take the A Train, a collaboration with author Cassandra Khaw, whose Nothing But Blackened Teeth has been on my to-read list for the last two years or so and has now jumped to the top of that list based on the 65% of A Train I've read in the last few days.

Here's the solicitation blurb:

"Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority. Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah – and the entire world - directly in the path of annihilation. The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw’s cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly."

It's been some time since I read Richard Kadrey's Butcher Bird, but I loved that novel and have followed the man on soc.med ever since. He's a bright spot in the increasingly noxious online world, and it's great to 'catch up' with his writing over a decade since I began.*

Also, that cover has to be one of the most gorgeous I've seen in some time (artist James Jirat Patradoon's website is HERE). 

.........................................

* I've always wanted to read Sandman Slim, however, much like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, I have grown to baulk at starting so lengthy a series, in case I love it and it consumes the next year of my life.

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Playlist:

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Frank Black and the Catholics - Snake Oil

Opeth - Deliverance

Misfits - Collection II

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Godflesh - Purge

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

U2 - Achtung Baby

Justin Hamline - Worst Locals Ever

Steve Moore - Gone World

The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)

Lord Huron - Long Lost

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Card:

I've been off the clock here since last week, and I am tired. Had a new round of the COVID booster yesterday, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks, so just one card from Missi's Raven Deck today:

I'll be double-verifying all information that crosses my path today and, perhaps conversely keeping an eye out for ways to slip mainstream corridors of thought. 

For Absent Friends

I don't think I ever noticed how much this track from 2002's Deliverance resembles Alice in Chains. It's the guitar, 100%. Has that woodsy, almost campfire sound Jerry Cantrell gets to his playing when it veers forlorn and reflective. Absolutely stunning, regardless of the comparison. I always teeter back and forth between Deliverance and Blackwater Park as the crowning jewel of Opeth's "mid" period.

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Watch:

Over the course of two nights last week, I watched and rewatched Panos Cosmatos' entry in Guillermo del Torro's Cabinet of Curiosities. 

 

To say The Viewing is my favorite installment of Cabinet would be an understatement. I liked all of them to one degree or another, and even the ones I connected with least - unexpectedly, both H.P. Lovecraft adaptations - rank as extremely well-made genre films. But The Viewing is something else entirely.

 

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Read:

Seeing the announcements for Stephen Graham Jones' Don't Fear the Reaper, I finally ordered a signed Hardcover edition of last year's My Heart is a Chainsaw from the wonderful folks at Jones' home store, Boulder Books in Bolder Colorado. Chainsaw was the first volume in what Jones has dubbed his Indian Lake Trilogy, and Reaper continues the story. Here's the solicitation from Jone's publisher, Simon and Schuster:

December 12th, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author, Stephen Graham Jones.

Don't Fear the Reaper is out February 7th, and you can pre-order it anywhere. I'm sure I'll be ordering a signed one from Boulder Books, and I'll probably ask for the personalized option this time. To good to pass up.

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Playlist:

Barry Adamson - Back To The Cat

Opeth - Deliverance

Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

With Strangers - A Love That's Gone (single)

Preoccupations - Arrangements

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic/Cenozoic

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

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Card:

Returning once more to the Raven Deck for a quick pull to establish the week:

Reading this as a reminder to keep things fluid this week. I had a great writing session this past Saturday where I dug heavily back into Shadow Play Book Two, and then a massive, three-plus hour one again Sunday to further that. Raven's telling me to enjoy this, but be open to other projects that might need attention this week.

Madrigal/The Amen Corner

 

From Opeth's 1998 My Arms Your Hearse. These are separated as two separate tracks, so props to efrain23 for posting them together. 

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NCBD:

Can't wait to get into Rick's Comic City and pick up my books later today. Here's what I'm grabbing off the shelves for NCBD:

Hobgoblin may be the character that first got me to pick up a Spidey comic as a kid - I think my first was the famous Amazing Spider-Man #289 back in 1987. I've talked here before about how I never really followed any Spider-book on a monthly basis, only jumped on when the story/cover looked appealing to me. Hobgoblin was always a draw, and it's cool to see him - ah, them? - back again. After all, what's better than a Hobgoblin appearance? Two Hobgoblins! 

The penultimate issue. Daniel Warren Johnson's Do A Powerbomb is definitely a series of continued gut punches, and for the second year in a row, DWJ's leading my "Best of 2022" comics list. 

Benjamin Percy's Ghost Rider has kept me around, despite being slightly uneven. Issues that I expect to flop - like the one with Wolverine as a guest star - blew me away (so f**kin' gory!), but often after those tentpole issues, the series feels a bit by the book. I think I'm wrong, though, and I'm hoping the change at the end of issue 7 marks new territory. I don't love the implications of this cover, however, I've been reading comics long enough to know an arresting image like this will probably play no part in the actual issue.

This Moon Knight series is another that continues to defy my expectations. Marvel is really developing the "Midnight Sons" corner of their universe, most likely to usher in an eventual leg of the MCU, and that's alright in my book. In Moon Knight alone we've recently had Vampires and now Werewolves, so who knows where this is going.

J.M. Dematteis returns to the Kraven's Last Hunt lore? I'm in. 

In an interesting coincidence, I just caught up on The Nice House On The Lake over the weekend, so I'm ready for this, another penultimate issue. I'm not really certain how this book will wrap up by #12, but I have learned to trust the Tiny Onion.

I'm now three issues behind on this series; time to get my ass in gear. What a cover!

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Playlist:

Pailhead - Trait

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Cocksure - K.K.E.P.

Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth 

Tangerine Dream - Force Majuere

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse

Opeth - Watershed

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digipak)

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

A Breakthrough that leads to increased assets inspires determination and a new willingness to take on extra burdens. Vague, but it fits something in my life perfectly (I think).

In the Mist

 

A little old-school Opeth to kick off the week. From their 1995 debut Orchid.

I spent more time last week listening to the newer Opeth albums than I ever have before, and still, nothing after Watershed really sticks with me. I wasn't a fan back when these early, Candlelight/Century Black records came out; I didn't buy my first Opeth album until the early oughts (Deliverance), and I didn't become what I would call a huge fan until shortly before the aforementioned Watershed, an album I never really connected with either, until last week. Watershed has its moments, but previously only ever served to make me miss the band that recorded the albums before it that I like. My circuitous point here is I can't claim the same prejudice against the band's conversion to prog-rock that older fans do, who witnessed the evolution as each successive record came out, but like many others, I miss the teeth from the band's early and even mid-career music.

So I'm pulling out the triple-disc rerelease those first three records received in the mid-00s and digging in. 

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Play:

I hadn't really picked up my Switch to continue my pilgrimage in Game Kitchen's Blasphemous in some time, so Sunday I spent a good deal of time on it while editing the 100th episode of The Horror Vision. I made quite a bit of progress, and am now approximately 93% finished. Lots of surprises in this game, which so reminds me of Castlevania and, in some ways more so, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. The most unexpected event I encountered so far is a hidden room that houses an arcade game, which you have the option to play. Here's a playthrough video from youtube Psychobeats, link to their channel HERE.

Very cool stuff. I can't wait to see what else this game has in store for me. For now, I'm trapped battling my way through "Mourning and Havoc" one of the more difficult levels I've encountered in the game.

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

John Carpenter - Alive After Death

The Besnard Lakes - The Last of the Great Storm Warnings

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School  of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done

Lustmord and The Ocean - Primal (State of Being) (Single)

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

The Final Cut - Consumed

Miami Nights 1984 - Sentimental

Sade - Loe Deluxe

Boy Harsher - Lesser Man

Thelonious Monk W/ John Coltrane - Eponymous

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

Barry Adamson - As Above So Below

Cory Wong - Power Station

Orville Peck - Pony

Orville Peck - Bronco

Ghost - Impera

Def Leppard - Pyromania

Tim Waits - Rain Dogs

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Card:

Day of the Dead

 

As is my custom, here's Opeth's Dirge for November to initiate our Day of the Dead. I'm not quite sure how Opeth became my official band of the month November, but it happened. I'll be digging into the band's back catalogue all month, and Blackwater Park is always where I start that particular journey.

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31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat

10/2 - Barbarian

10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)

10/4 - Phenomena

10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)

10/6 - The Dark Backward

10/7 - Sick/The Beyond

10/8 - Werewolf By Night

10/9 - Something in the Dirt

10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna

10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty

10/12 - Smile

10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)

10/14 - Halloween Kills

10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space

10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth

10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2

10/19 - Footprints on the Moon/976-EVIL

10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf

10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn

10/22 - Resolution

10/23 - The Endless

10/24 - VHS 99

10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid

10/26 - Bliss

10/27 - Deadstream/Host

10/28 - The Convent

10/29 - Lot 36 (GDT's CoC ep. 1)/George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead 3D/Return of the Living Dead

10/30 - Lords of Salem

10/31 - 31/Treehouse of Horror XXXIII/Hocus Pocus/Night of the Living Dead (68)

That's a wrap on yet another 31 Days of Halloween. Of course, my love of Horror movies doesn't stop there - I'm actually taking K to see Smile this evening - but there's a TON of non-Horror I need to get to, and November/December is typically the time of year when I get psyched for the, ahem, 'Prestige' pictures the studios release, and that carries over into my daily life as well. 

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Read:

Still inspired by seeing Lucio Fulci's The Beyond: The Composer's Cut at Beyondfest last month, I returned home from Los Angeles and began re-reading Eibon Press's outstanding The Beyond series, where Stephen Romano and Pat Carbajal adapt and explore Lucio Fulci's masterpiece:

I've been wanting to do this re-read for some time, as it will dovetail nicely with me finally ordering a copy of the recently released Escape From The Beyond #1.

I very much dig Romano's extrapolation of the over-story Fulci thinly draped across his three "Gates of Hell" films, and can't wait to see where he takes the sequel, now firmly new territory. The previous books from Eibon - The Beyond, The Gates of Hell, and House By the Cemetery - are all adaptations with flourishes that hint at being further advanced in this new series. 

Whether by intention or after sight, Fulci built an extremely ripe mythos with these three films, and it's awesome to see so talented a creator as Romano - who clearly loves the material - do what the master himself never got the chance to do. 

Bring it all together. 

There will, of course, be those who say the ending of The Beyond is perfect and shouldn't be messed with. To that, I'd say I agree with the first half; if someone were to remake or plan a film sequel, I'd be a lot more trepidacious. Swapping mediums gives Romano and now artist Jeff Zurnow an unlimited bag of visual tricks, so let's see what they do with it. If you don't end up liking it, these books need not affect the film at all. But imagine the possibilities; we've all wondered what happens after John and Liza end up in Schweik's painting...

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Playlist:

Various -Shawn's Halloween Playlist

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

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Card:

Being that November 1st is, in some manner of speaking, the beginning of my new year, I wanted to make this pull pretty comprehensive. To that end, I began with the Raven Tarot:

I see this as denoting a return on the investments of my time/energy on various projects.

Next, to move beyond the general scope, I wanted to pull a spread using Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, (which you can buy HERE.)

Ace of Cups and Swords both imply breakthroughs, with the addition of the Eight of Cups telling the breakthroughs may come in the form of recognizing my errors and thus, correcting them. Again, this all seems to point to my current project. 

Opeth - The Width of a Circle

I'll admit - I was pretty disappointed to see this pop up in my youtube feed, click on it and find that it's NOT a cover of the David Bowie classic by the same name. That said, I don't take to very much of the music Opeth makes these days, but I dig this. 

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Dollar Bin:

Welcome back to the Dollar Bin, one of my favorite corners of any local comic shop to spend some time digging through. This week's find: 1985's Moonshadow!

Talk about a book that's been on my radar for decades - maybe as long as I've been seriously reading comics - yet one I haven't actually picked up until now. Originally published through Marvel's Epic comics - kind of their Vertigo a full eight years before Vertigo existed - Moonshadow's J.M. DeMatteis and Jon J. Muth's coming of age, modern fantasy. I remember leafing through this one when it was still on the stands, probably near the end of its 12-issue run, so circa 1986. I would have been ten. This and Stray Toasters were books that initially confused the hell out of me as a die-hard disciple of Larry Hama's G.I.Joe, however, those books also planted the seeds for me to eventually see the potential that lay in the comic format beyond superhero books. I recently scored issues 1-4 in the dollar bins at the Comic Bug, and am looking forward to reading them.

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Watch:

I remember seeing the thumbnail for the first Wyrmwood movie on Netflix for years but never being motivated to watch it. I've had plenty of people whose opinions I trust recommend I do just that, but for whatever reason, I just haven't. Now there's a sequel on the way, and I'm still not certain how I feel about these flicks:

It's not that this looks bad, it just looks kind of repetitive. If anyone out there has seen these and vouch for them - because apparently like five of my good friends aren't enough - let me know. 

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Playlist:

Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening

Quicksand - Distant Populations

The Mysterines - Reeling

Ministry - Filth Pig

Blut Aus Nord - That Cannot Be Dreamed (pre-release)

Svarte Greiner - Devolving Trust

Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror 

Lower Dens - Escape From Evil

Opeth - Deliverence

Code Orange - Underneath

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Card:

Again with the damn Hierophant. What the hell am I missing? What am I so blindly adhering to that it's impairing me in some way?

A Dirge For Boba Fett's November

 

Here we are again. Remember what yer grandpappy telt ya, November brings the Opeth.

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Watch:

Finally!!!

 

When they brought Fett into the second season of The Mandalorian, I was bummed. I mean, with the creation of Mando, it seemed a misstep to overturn Fett's death, because the brilliance of following another character in the beloved armor floored me as a simple and elegant solution to the problem of how to bring back one of the most popular characters in the franchise. By the end of that season, however, when I realized Fett would not end up a regular character on the show, I warmed to his presence. The masterstroke of setting up a new, Fett-centric show with the post-credits sequence on the final episode proved a masterstroke to me, and now, here we are! With Bossk people, Ree-Eyes, Sand People, Bib Fortuna and Gamorrean Guards a'plenty, I am super excited for this one. Bring it on!

 

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Playlist:

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Type O Negative - Dead Again

HEALTH & Poppy - Dead Flowers

Boy Harsher - Careful

Boy Harsher - Country Girl Uncut

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

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Card:

The shortest distance between two points isn't always the fastest. Swiftness can come by way of out-thinking a dilemma. 

A Dirge for November

And we enter the Dying Time with Opeth, usually a staple of most Novembers for me. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons

25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia

26) Prince of Darkness/Tales of Halloween (remainder)

27) Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In - Nine short films

28) Halloween III: Season of the Witch

29) Lords of Salem/The Connors 2020 Halloween episode

30) Mike Mendez's The Convent/The Wizard of Gore (2007)

31) Creepshow Animated Special/Halloween (78)/ Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things/Night of the Living Dead (68)

And that's a wrap, folks. I hope y'all had as fun a 31 Days of Horror as K and I did! 

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Playlist:

Mr. Bungle - California

Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny

Dance With the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1

Dance With the Dead - The Shape

Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Halloween Spotify Playlist

The Velvet Underground and Nico - Eponymous

Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series 

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Card:

Energy out of whack from the top down. What's that sound like? Hoping for an end to that come this Tuesday.

Opeth - Next of Kin

Opeth's new album In Cauda Venenum dropped this morning and after listening to it, I find it's the first of the 'prog' Opeth that I really like. Maybe enough time has passed that I'm not still pining for the Opeth that gave us Blackwater Park and Deliverance, or maybe I've just come around some kind of corner with the band, but I'm digging this record.

**

If the first episode is any indication, Shudder and Greg Nicotero absolutely NAILED Creepshow. Talk about forty-five minutes of heaven. You can hear The Horror Vision's spoiler-free reaction/discussion at any of the links below:

The Horror Vision on Apple

The Horror Vision on Spotify

The Horror Vision on Google Play

**

New Desert Sessions? Fantastic news!

**

Playlist from 9/26:

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III

Imperial Teen - Now We Are Timeless

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

**

No card today.

Opeth - Sorceress

Opeth is amazing. And though I haven't been able to get into anything the band has done since they began down the prog path on Watershed, I still enjoy keeping tabs on them. This new track is no different. I probably won't buy the record, but I'm glad Opeth is still out there challenging themselves and making great music. This is the title track from their new record, out 9/30.

And actually, before I go I want to drop a link. Directly after I just stated I would probably not buy Sorceress I read Max Frank's opinions on the record over at Metal Sucks and I have to say, it might just be the reference to Davis and Friedkin, or the comparison to Fleetwood Mac, but now I think Sorceress might be the first Opeth post Watershed that I really try to sink my teeth into.

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

Parsing for my best of 2015 list is becoming f^&kin' impossible. Here's another candidate. Beautiful; kind of reminds me of the first time I heard Opeth's older stuff. The album cover is disturbing as hell and kind of evokes the first season of True Detective if its villains had been members of a Black Metal-related cult. The tape holding the paper together in the background is the perfect little detail for me, makes it feel real.

New Opeth Track

Via the mighty Bloody Disgusting, a new track from the forthcoming Pale Communion LP. I have not loved some of the music Opeth has made since they have become a quasi prog band circa 2006' Ghost Reveries. However, I recognize that this is entirely based on the fact that Mikael Akerfeldt wants to keep the project ever moving forward. The band still makes - quality wise - some of the greatest metal music in history and simply because of the pure beautiful majesty of Blackwater Park they always get the benefit of the doubt and the utmost respect from me no matter how I take to their newer material.