Deadguy - Knife Sharpener

 

From their first album in 30 years, Near-Death Travel Services, out June 27th on Relapse Records. I pre-ordered my copy from the Relapse Store the second I saw the announcement last month. Love these guys, and I love this video! The False Metal asteroid made me laugh out loud!

It's difficult to put into words the joy seeing Deadguy reunite instills in me. These guys were one of the few bands from the old Victory Records that made a positive impact on me. In fact, Fixation on a Coworker became something of a legendary album for my friends and I at a time when there wasn't a lot of metal besides Ministry or Mike Patton projects that we cared for. I've carried the CD copy Subculture Magazine sent me to review with me since I received it blind back in '95, and seeing them reunite last year in Brooklyn and now having a new full-length on the way in just a few weeks... it feels great. 

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Watch:

Despite an INSANE level of curiosity, I am abstaining from watching this trailer for now. I'm not sure I ever thought The Black Phone needed a sequel, but after reading a bit about this, I have to say, I'm in.        

I'm sure I'll see this a bunch of times at my local theatre, but for now, I'll push past it and hope I can just be surprised. I will say, in the little bit of the synopsis I read, they mention a "Winter Camp," and I thought that was an amazing twist on the Summer Camp trope. I'm curious if it's ever been done before. I brought it up at the comic shop and one of the guys mentioned The Lodge and The Shining, but while those are winter-based, they're not 'camps.' The more I think about this - and it will still require some research to confirm - this may be a one-of-a-kind concept here. 

Derrickson and Cargill - I really don't think this can go wrong.

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Read:

As K and I continue our rewatch of Daredevil, Season Two, my fascination with John Bernthal's rendition of Frank Castle has me jonesing to re-read some of the old 1980s Punisher comics I was obsessed with back in the day. So, Tuesday night after we finished Season Two, Episode 7, K retired for the night and I spent some time pulling out short boxes.

I'd forgotten that Stephen Grant wrote the original 1985 Punisher mini-series that served as the set-up for the ongoing one that kicked off in 1987. The ongoing was my introduction, but a large part of my catalyst for picking that up was seeing Mike Zeck's cover art on the wall behind the counter at my first comic ship, Worth, Illinois' Heroland (back when it was attached to the Post Office on Harlem and 111th). Mike Zeck is a criminally forgotten artist who did the art for two of my favorite series from the 80s - this Punisher mini-series and J.M. Dematteis' Kraven's Last Hunt, which I've waxed on about in these pages several times.

I eventually picked up all five issues of this mini at comic book shows scattered around Illinois - they used to host them at Knight's of Colombus Halls - and they quickly became prized possessions. It's been quite some time since I've read these, though, so it's great to go back to them now. 

The story starts with Castle behind bars at Rikers. A run-in with Jigsaw and a failed assassination during a prison break put Castle in the debt of an organization called The Trust. The Trust says they just want Frank to keep doing what he's doing and they'll fund it - but Frank knows there's another shoe bound to drop, and he's packing enough ammo accordingly.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that an off-hand comment in something I read made me realize how inherently 'Right Wing' the concept of the Punisher is. Although, I'd argue there's an element of Common Sense here as well - Common Sense being my political predisposition in comparison to the two parties of nonsense we currently adhere to in this country. Still, there's no denying that the origins of this character - and certainly the early comics - leaned that way. Yet, just like Marvel has done with Frank's current incarnation in Disney +'s Daredevil: Born Again, there's complexity here that undermines this interpretation. 

That Marvel was able to 'take back' the Punisher logo in Born Again after its unfortunate "Scared Blue Line" association since that infamous photo of a cop's lock screen as he waits outside the Uvalde school shooting while children die is nothing short of a fucking miracle. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but I thought the fact that Marvel addressed this head-on in Born Again was ballsy, poignant and honestly took a lot of guts. I'd be curious to know how many Police officers started the show with a sense of excitement and then bounced once they saw the turn it took with Fisk's private army of corrupt police. The distinction here is perfect - a truly thin blue line that, just as in our reality, takes care to separate the good cops from the bad ones. Anyone offended would seem to be taking the wrong side from the jump.

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Playlist:

The Henry Rollins Show - The Stooges (2007)

The Henry Rollins Show - Marilyn Manson & Peaches

Danzig - I Luciferi

Ghost - Skeletá

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Brand X - Morrocan Roll

Ministry - Box

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deadguy - Knife Sharpener (pre-release single)

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

OOIOO - Gold & Green

Man Man - Life Fantastic

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

Murder Inc. - The Complete Murder Inc/Locate Subvert Terminate

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Card:

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

• Three of Cups

• IX: The Hermit

• Queen of Cups

The Strength of Two is equal to Three, especially after coming back from a lonely gestation period. Return to a realm of deep Love and Understanding.

New Music from Wolves in the Throne Room!!!

A gorgeous new video from Wolves in the Throne Room's upcoming EP Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge, out September 29th on Relapse Records. You can pre-order a copy HERE.

Also, and as an aside, pretty sure that's Zartan making an appearance in the video at 2:11.

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Watch:

It's been a slow week for watching stuff; after hearing John Trafton talk about how he's not streaming new content until the WGA strike is over, I decided to follow suit. So no new shows for the last few weeks, which isn't nearly as bad as some might think - yeah, I'm behind or half-complete with several shows - Justified, Secret Invasion - but honestly, I don't really care at all. 

I couldn't make the same pledge for films simply because of everything we cover on The Horror Vision (although if things get too rough for the writers, I may vote to stop covering new studio films altogether and redirect the focus of the show to reassessing older titles). This break in the ouroboros of media consumption has led K and I back outside, where the cooler weather this week has weakened the presence of the marauding mosquitos and allowed us to enjoy our backyard again. Last night, however, the bugs were bad, and we folded back into our couch and watched a flick the other members of The Horror Vision were talking about: Adam Schindler's 2015 home invasion film Intruders.

If you're like me, you've seen this thumbnail pretty much every day since 2015. I don't normally gravitate toward Home Invasion as a subgenre, so I know why I passed this one up. That said, finally seeing it, I can say that I really enjoyed it, and it's not what you think it's going to be. I opted to post an image instead of a trailer because I'd be willing to bet the trailer gives too much away; we went in 100% blind and were pleasantly surprised.

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Playlist:

The Cure - Pornography

Anthrax - State of Euphoria

Testament - Low

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Mastodon - Leviathon

Bluekarma - The Communication

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Oracle:

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

• XIV: Temperance (Art in Thoth)

• Ten of Wands

• V: The Hierophant

Easy associations this morning; a reminder to employ patience and consider the ideas of others (my folks) as I barge into the situation this weekend and attempt to fix a problem we have with the person representing the sale of their house. The Hierophant is the dogma of my own ideas, whipping my preconceived notions into a frenzy that, if left untempered, could lead to a Willful disaster. 

Just for perspective, I thought I'd pull Thoth today, as well:

• XVI: The Tower

• Seven of Wands

• XVIII: The Moon

A very similar reading as above (or, I suppose it's just my inclination for interpretation, after all, that's what Tarot is - it's not occult information from an outer source, but a way to bypass the conscious mind with symbols and associations and peak at what's already in your mind that you might be refusing or unaware of).

The Tower here represents the Idea I have in my head (the one that the first Pull warned me against giving too much credence to). The Seven of Wands is a Victory (sevens always are some kind of Victory or turning point because their Sephirotic association is Netzach) over that untempered Dogma (Hierophant). The Moon is almost always a nod to unconsidered or occluded information. I'm taking that to mean that while the person I have an issue with is definitely operating at their own agenda, there's more to the story than just their being a cunt.

New Music from Myrkur

From the upcoming album Spine, out October 20th on Relapse Records. Pre-order Spine HERE.

I'm not 100% on this track yet; I've really liked Myrkur's previous records, however, there's something about the hook in this that feels borrowed from Madonna. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's rubbing at me a bit. I can't wait to hear the entire album when it's released in October.

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NCBD:

Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:

No idea what this series 'is,' however, with classic Jean Grey a la X-Factor scribe Louise Simonson penning it, I'm in.

Newburn's return last month reminded me how much I dig Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips's street-level tale of a fixer who has - potentially at least - grown too big for his britches. Can't wait to see how the story continues to wind its way around Newburn - and his unweary assistant Emily's - throats.

The first issue of Tenement felt kind of like a gift; after a graphic novel (The Passageway) and a mini-series (Ten Thousand Black Feathers), we're finally getting a little more than just tone from Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's ambitious, sprawling Bone Orchard Mythos. Don't get me wrong, I love tone. I'm not a person that needs a plot in order to enjoy a well-written comic or novel. That said, there are gottasees set up in those two previous entries into this Mythos that make me think the reveals will be INSANE, so I'm kind of chomping at the bit with this one. Tenement looks to be the chapter to finally drag some of that out into the light.

            

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Watch:

A new trailer for Neon Release's upcoming It Lives Inside dropped yesterday.

        

Releasing in theatres on September 22nd, I have a pretty good feeling about this one. Just like the last trailer that dropped for this one, I only needed a moment before I turned it off and knew I'd be seeing it. Directed by relatively newcomer Bishal Dutta, there's a buzz around this one that reminds me a bit of the buzz for Talk to Me. Could be a really nice Autumn entry into the year's Horror.

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Myrkur - Like Humans (single)

Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

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Card:

• Eight of Swords - Interference

• Prince of Wands

• Queen of Swords

I'm pretty tempted to read this in a very surface-level manner. I've got two big ideas, or influences, interrupted in the middle by Interference. I made some HUGE revelatory thinking about the novel yesterday, just some enormous stuff, but didn't write. I've got a couple days' worth of inertia from not writing while I was in Chicago for a wedding (drove in Friday, drove out Sunday, thus, I literally had no time to write). Also, I continue to experience what I can only classify as major anxiety primarily shaped around my parents' eventual move, so I've been treating that with edibles. I don't write when I'm high, so the anxiety is an Interference while large ideas hang in the balance. 

Will be writing today for sure.

 

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Death Folk Country

 

From Windhand singer Dorthia Cottrell's second solo record, Death Folk Country, released last week on the always fantastic Relapse Records. You can order a copy HERE. 

I'll admit that I don't know Dorthia's first solo record, 2015's self-titled, as much as I should considering I'm such a huge Windhand fan. In fact, I don't think I've listened to that one since it came out. I jammed Death Folk Country last week and it really hit the spot, and now, spending time with both records this morning, I can definitely draw a parallel: Cottrell's solo acoustic records are sort of to Windhand what Alice in Chains' every-other-album, acoustic EPs were to their proper albums. There's a strong vein of Cottrell's aesthetic that informs Windhand's sound and imagery, and those elements are on full display in these stripped-down arrangements of acoustic, peddle steel and the other various atmospherics touches Dorthia peppers these records with. As an artist, there is a bleak beauty to Dorthia's music - both in those aforementioned arrangements and in her vocals/melodies, and all of it ties together nicely into that over-arching aesthetic. 

Also, can I say that I love the album title Death Folk Country because I actually think that's a perfect descriptor for the music she makes in her solo career, and on this new album in particular? I guess I just did.
 

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NCBD:

Being that I was off work the last two days while K and I hung out in Dayton, OH, Wednesday feels a bit like Monday, and I'm starting my week with a pretty awesome NCBD. Here are my picks:

The final issue of the ill-fated Donny Cates, Ryan Ottley Hulk series. Most folks seem to hate this one, but I loved it and am sorry to see it go. Cates and Ottley took some HUGE swings here, and although Cates jumped off a few issues back, I feel like Ottley's done a great job maintaining the tone. Really hoping to snag this Skottie Young cover.

The end of Sins of Sinister. Despite what I perceived as a rough start, the Hobby Store SciFi of the last few issues has endeared SoS to me quite a bit. Up next for the X-Books, "Before the Fall." Not entirely sure what this will consist of, and I doubt I'll read all the titles, but there are a few that look as though they will interest me.

Being that I have not been reading the tie-in "Event" book, The Armageddon Game, I kind of feel like I've lost my compass for the ongoing TMNT series. Hoping that gets alleviated soon. 

LOVE this cover so much - total throwback to the earliest days of TMNT and, in a broader sense, early 80s indie comics in general. 

Halloween in the world of WTFPFH? Sign me up! This one's world is really starting to open up, and I'm curious to see more people and places through the eyes of characters outside the now-defunct Academy.

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Watch:

A few days ago, Bloody Disgusting posted the trailer for a new Slasher flick called The Curse of Wolf Mountain.

 

Some cool imagery here, and I'm definitely curious as to the story. That said, I'm not going to lie: when I see an indie flick - especially if it's a Slasher - that has people like Felicia Rose, Robert Englund, Bill Mosley, or in this case Tobin Bell and Danny Trejo, I become a bit weary. These good folks are genre icons who earn a considerable chunk of their living doing cameos in any movie that can afford them. Their names then bolster the perceived appeal of those flicks. Nothing wrong with any of that, except sometimes it seems like those flicks don't have a hell of a lot going for them besides the cameos. Wolf Moutain's trailer is ambiguous enough that I cannot properly "read" much about it quality-wise, so we'll have to wait for the film's release on May 9th to find out. That said, as I stated at the top, with some of what we're seeing in this trailer, Wolf Mountain has a very real chance of being a solid modern Slasher along the lines of Random Acts of Violence or The Ranger.

 

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Playlist:

Television - Marquee Moon

The Sword - Age of Winters

Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle

Funkdoobiest - Brothers Doobie

Guordan Banks - Keep You in Mind (single)

NIN - The Slip

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child

Gang Starr - Hard to Earn

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Windhand - Eponymous (reissue)

 

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Card:

When I travel, I always have my mini Thoth deck that Missi gifted me years back in my bag. However, when I went to do a Pull this past Monday from Dayton, OH, I couldn't find the deck. Now, I knew it was in the bag - this is a multi-compartment backpack, and I've become fairly convinced there's a portal to some small space dimension in the damn thing, so that items disappear, then reappear later. This was the case with the mini Thoth, as I found it yesterday while packing for our return trip. Anyway, this morning I felt like those cards had something to tell me, and when I pulled them from the small cloth pouch they live in, one card was turned over atop all the others.

The Ten of Disks can be a murky card on its own; are we talking about monetary wealth or amassment? Define wealth?  Most likely, as this is the Disks or "Earth" suit, however, there's more to Malkuth than just coins. Bearing this in my, next, I shuffled and pulled two accompanying cards to clarify the reading:

Swift action or, perhaps more appropriately read Conflict,  can be the deciding factor that helps achieve completion. 

Loud and clear - I've had a couple days off from writing, as there was zero time on our trip (that's not usually the case; I normally make time wherever we go), but I need to finish this short story I've had poised for completion today and get it submitted to the short story market it's intended for.

 

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Poison Ruïn's Harvest

I am completely new to Philidelphia punks Poison Ruïn, but when this video for Härvest, their upcoming album on Relapse Records showed up in my feed, it kinda blew my mind. We've seen "blackened" versions of nearly everything else (although I'd love to find a band that calls itself "blackened adult contemporary"), why not Punk? And with Poison Ruïn's anti-establishment ethos, we are talking about actual Punk here, insofar as politically minded, not just three-chord monte. Anyway, I dig this quite a bit. Härvest drops April 14th, and you can pre-order it HERE.

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Watch:

Yellowjackets is back, and K and I are finishing up a rewatch of the first season today and hitting episode one of season two later today. Can't freakin' wait!

If you didn't hear it before and are interested, here's the speculation episode we did on The Horror Vision days before the season one finale. Many of our theories/projections were proven erroneous or obsolete by that finale, but not all of them.

 

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Plastic:

Oh, come on! Stop taking my money!

            

The Universal monsters were, like many from my generation, my introduction to "Horror." My girlfriend also has a passion for the Universals, and we kind of bring it out in one another, to the point that one year for our anniversary, I bought us Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein shirts from Fright Rags. 

As Bobby Fingers says in that most recent video, when you find the one, never let them go!

Anyway, my die-hard passion starts and stops with Frank and this fella right here, who is actually probably my favorite of the Universals. Tack on the Lovecraftian twist in the lore that writers like Alan Moore and Stephen Murphy have reintroduced to popular culture over the last few decades, and The Creature continues to captivate me. So you can imagine my joy/chagrin when Jonathan Grimm messaged me with the details about this lovely figure Neca announced. I'm preordering mine from Entertainment Earth, but I'll need to do something really nice for my wallet one day soon.

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Playlist:

Talking Heads - Fear of Music

The Police - Outlandos d'Amour

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

           

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Author & Punisher - Drone Carrying Dread

Let's wash that 80s Metal taste out of our mouth, shall we? Kinda tastes like Marlboro Lights mixed with Boon's Farm and Aquanet. Here's the first single Author/Punisher released from the forthcoming album Krüller, out on Relapse Records next Friday! Pre-Order HERE.

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Watch:

After rewatching Scream 2 and seeing part 3 for the first time back in October, I have to say, everything but the original seems like they are most definitely not for me. The franchise feels like Friends with a murder. Because of this, it was with great reluctance I went to see part 5 a few days ago.  But lo and behold, Radio Silence turned in a really fun, gory AF flick that I had a blast with. And they manage to make "Meta" interesting again.

 

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Playlist:

Ministry - Filth Pig

Ministry - Twitch

Soul Coughing - El Oso

Cypress Hill - Back in Black (pre-release singles)

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday

Depeche Mode - Christmas Island

Ghost - Meliora

Ghost - Popestar

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Anthrax - Among the Living

Author/Punisher - Krüller (pre-release singles)

Brand New - Daisy

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Abigail Williams - Walk Beyond the Dark

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Card:

This card is so where I'm at right now. So many distractions and I'm finding it impossible to concentrate. I've upped my daily meditation regiment for the next few days after missing the last few, and knuckling down on enforcing mental discipline. 

Monolord - The Weary

I'm not a huge Monolord fan - in fact, I kind of don't understand why I don't like them more than I do based on all the ingredients they create their music with. I think it has a bit to do with how fanatical I am about Windhand, and the fact that you can really only listen to so many Doom/Stoner bands and feel a unique rush from them. Whatever the case, by saying all this, it is definitely not my intention to derate or downplay them. Monolord is a solid fucking band, with a couple really great records. I just get winded listening to them after only a song or two (most of the time).

This new track, however, is fantastic and feels just different enough that maybe this is their release I'll really become hung up on. Either way, Your Time to Shine drops October 29th on Relapse Records, and you can pre-order your copy HERE. 

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Watch:

 

Beyondfest announces their line-up tomorrow. It's 9/29-10/11, so I will be out of town during roughly half of it. I think at this point, the movie I want to see the most is Julia Ducournau's Titane. This is one of those films I have read next to nothing about and the trailer, which I saw on the big screen before The Green Knight last month, looks amazing without telling you anything about the film.

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Ghost - Enter Sandman (Cover)

Monolord - The Weary (pre-release single)

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Metallica - Eponymous

White Hex - Gold Nights

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Card:

Affirmation that although I keep rewriting the same damn section of the new book, my efforts are not wasted. 

The New King Woman is Vicious Fun!

 

Holy cow! A new King Woman track dropped two days ago and it's a doozy! Bloody Disgustingt mentioned an Elizabeth Bathory vibe, and while I definitely see that, even more I see the influence of Joe Begos's Bliss. Either way, Celestial Blues is out July 30th on Relapse Records, and you can pre-order it HERE.

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Watch:

After watching Cody Calahan's Vicious Fun last night, I'm thinking this may end up as my favorite movie of the year. If not numero uno, it's up there. What is for sure, at least thus far, is Ari Millen - who some will know as Mark/Ira/Rudy/a bunch of other clones on Orphan Black - seems cinched as my favorite performance of the year

 

This one's a BLAST, and I can't recommend it enough.

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Playlist:

The Kills - Midnight Boom

The Kills - No Wow

Entropy - Liminal

The Casket Lottery -  Survival is for Cowards

King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

King Woman - Doubt EP

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Led Zeppelin - I

Led Zeppelin - IV

King Woman - I Wanna Be Adored (single)

Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

Chairlift - Something

Polica - Give You the Ghost

Turquoise Moon - Sunset City

 

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Card:

 

Crash Course? Brain Surgery? Either way, I will try to keep my wits about me today.

New Zombi!!!

New Zombi! I'm still blasting last year's aptly titled 2020 and here there is, more on the way! Pre-order from Relapse Records HERE.

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Watch:

Our entire household received our first doses of the Pfizer Vaccine on Thursday afternoon and it subsequently knocked me on my ass. I had flu-like body ache, fatigue and borderline nausea until yesterday. Which was fine, because I called out from work on Friday and other than having to work five hours on Saturday - which sucked - and interviewing comics artist and entrepreneur Jay Fotos for A Most Horrible Library afterward (episode out now), I basically watched a bunch of stuff, read a lot, and got some writing done. Oh yeah, and sleep. I slept A LOT.

Watch-wise, first up was Andrzej Zulawski's Possession, which I'd been wanting to see for a long time but is fairly hard to come by. Luckily, Anthony from The Horror Vision has several European Region copies and I now have a Region-Free player, so the stars aligned and my mind was literally blown. 

  

I'm seriously planning a second viewing of this one SOON, because I really need to unpack it. 

Friday night, Joe Bob Briggs returned with the first episode of The Last Drive-In. I'm a huge fan of JBB, however, after about thirty minutes of Lloyd Kaufman's Mother's Day, I jumped ship. I respect the hell out of the Kaufman's and Troma, but thus far, I've never had a single one of their movies work for me. This one was no different, so instead, K and I rented Travis Stevens' new film Jakob's Wife.

Starring Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden, there was pretty much no way this one would miss for me, and it didn't fail. Solid Five Stars on Lettrbxd.

I'm finally going back and re-watching all the Marvel MCU flicks that I missed due to total Superhero burn-out. If you're keeping track, I loved Ms. Marvel, and now loved Spider-Man: Homecoming! 

Wow. I knew these flicks would all be good, however, damn! This one was awesome. K and I both LOVED Homecoming and now can't wait to watch Far From Home.

Finally, Saturday night we watched Michael Kennedy and Christopher Landon's Freaky. Everyone told me this one was great, and they were all 100% correct. Loved it! 

   

As my good friend Missi said, "Vince Vaughn was born to play a seventeen-year-old girl!" Amen!
 

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - VFW OST

Small Black - Cheap Dreams

Zombi - 2020

Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility

K's 70s Playlist

Kensonlovers - Keep Rolling

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth

Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire

Anthrax - Persistence of Time

Christopher Young and Lustmord - The Empty Man OST

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Pilotpriest - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III

Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather

Mrs. Piss - Self Surgery

CCR - Bayou Country

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier

Numenorean - Adore

Alice in Chains - Facelift

Judas Priest - Painkiller

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Revocation - Teratogenesis

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

Zombi - Shape Shift

Zombi - Escape Velocity

Voyag3r - Doom Fortress

Voyag3r - War Mask

Various - Valerie and Friends

 

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Card:

 Definitely feels like a Victory that A) I received that first dose of the vax, and B) I'm back into a pretty great vibe with Shadow Play Book Two!!!

Genghis Tron - Pyrocene

The anticipation for Genghis Tron's new album is becoming palpable! It helps that none of these songs are anything I would have expected from this band, which is, of course, a good thing.

Out next week on Relapse Records, there's still time to pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

This one popped onto my radar recently, and after realizing Son is directed by Ivan Kavanagh, who also did 2014's The Canal, I'm very much looking forward to it. Here's the trailer, which I myself am not watching, preferring instead to go in blind on this one:

 

Son is an easy $6.99 rental on Prime at the moment, so that might just happen this weekend. After the werewolf revenge flick I mentioned in yesterday's post, that is. 

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Playlist:

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

Godflesh - Pure

Suburban Living - Always Eyes 

Suburban Living - How to Be Human

Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper 

DJ Muggs the Black Goat - Dies Occidendum

Flogging Molly - Float

The Pogues - Red Roses For Me

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Card:

We'll skip the obvious allusion to drinking on the morning after a fairly subdued St. Paddy's and go for the archetypal:

 

From the grimoire: "An artist above all things. Intensely secret and dedicated to his craft."

I'll take the compliment.

Genghis Tron - Ritual Circle

 

More new Genghis Tron. Very much looking forward to this record when it drops! Pre-order Dream Weapon - out March 26th - from Relapse Records HERE.

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READ:

I wanted to plant this HERE. really for myself, so I can find it again easily later. In going through old Orbital Operations emails for inspiration, I found this link to Sean Bonner's website. I am wholly unfamiliar with Mr. Bonner, or at least I was before reading this - but it's interesting that I read this now. There would appear to be a lot of synchronicities with me reading this post at the moment, not the least of which is that I'm about to turn 45. Anyway, since Orbital Operations went on hiatus last year, I've sorely lacked intermittent missives that at least in some regard pertain to the process of writing or creating or just structuring time (hence re-read old OOs), and Mr. Bonner's newsletter looks as though it may help fill that void.

 

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NCBD:

This is obviously a big one. I'm curious if, after the reveal at the end of issue #1, The Last Ronin will remain so highly sought after. My guess is no, but who knows? Also, who cares - the book is bad ass and I'm super excited for the next chapter.

One of my favorite series in years, issue #4 of We Live kind of set the whole series on its ear, and if I'm not mistaken, this is the final issue of the series. 

Another final issue. Hopefully, both We Live and Miskatonic will be back with second seasons. If not, it's been a hell of a ride for both in a very short time.

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Playlist:

Nothing - The Great Dismal

Dance with the Dead - B-Sides, Vol. 1

Teenage Wrist - Earth is a Black Hole

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Mr. Bungle - Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny

Primitive Man - Immersion

Ceremony - In the Spirit World Now (Synthetic Remixes)

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Card:

 

Balance and synthesis, two things I'm a skosh hung up on at the moment. I received the proofs of Murder Virus and am a bit underwhelmed at how the art looks in person. Also, I found a fucking typo on the first page! WTF!!! I've gone over this so much, I'm no longer seeing what's in front of my face. Ultimately, all this is easy to fix before the on-sale date of 3/23/21, but it's the point. 

The Gate Dismal

I'm pretty late checking out Nothing's latest release, which came out last year on Relapse Records. The Great Dismal was included in my Golden Ticket haul from Relapse, and I'm still working through that. A Fabricated Life begins the record, and I won't lie - its slow, soft, dreary sound hasn't been where my head is at. That said, listening to the record on headphones for the first time this morning, I'm able to grasp the nuance and vibe of the song, and it has stirred something within me. Something that harkens back to the first Nothing release, Downward Years to Come, which I discovered back in 2013. I love this band, and haven't spent nearly enough time with them these past two records, so I'll start correcting that today.

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Watch:

 

I stumbled across this short film - really more of a Proof of Concept trailer for a movie I can only hope gets made. Very cool use of CGI, ingenious locations, and what looks like the set-up for an intriguing take on Cosmic Horror. Directed by Matt Sears and written by Ryan Grundy, Mr. Sears' youtube channel appears packed with interesting content. Sub HERE.

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Playlist:

Cinderella - Long Cold Winter

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Emilie Autumn  - Opheliac 

Keiichi Okabe - NieR: Automata OST

 

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Card:

 

Spot on today, as I've definitely been preoccupied with a sort of drifting that has displaced a lot of my creative intent. I'm sure it's just a phase, but it makes me contemplate ideas like, "What if I lose all motivation to write?" which is ridiculous, but, you know, this is the way the mind works.

Genghis Tron's Dream Weapon

Wow. I haven't really checked in on Genghis Tron since 2005's Cloak of Love EP, when I fell in love with the track "Arms," putting it on a bunch of mixtapes (ie CDs) and playlists in the early days of iTunes. After only a handful of records in the 00s and nothing since 2008's Board Up the House, Tron is back and have a new record coming March 19, on Relapse Records! Pre-order Dream Weapon HERE.

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Watch:

Okay. Wandavision was trying my patience up to and into the third episode, but as of last night's? SOLD.

The same way my favorite X-Men team will always be the Australian hide-out 8-piece of Storm, Havoc, Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, Longshot, Dazzler, and pre-body shop Psylocke, the Avengers team that sticks in my head is from the same era:

It's not a stellar team, and I can't even say I was a huge fan of any of these characters at the time, but the impending 'End' of the team - very similar to Claremont's Dissolution and Rebirth arc in Uncanny X-Men at the time - coupled with the weird juxtaposition of knowing next to nothing about over half this team, made me interested as hell. Also, the fact that on the cover of Avengers 298 it appeared Dr. Druid was fighting Thor using a Zoid is what probably proved my impetus for picking the book up to begin with:

I digress, big time. However, that's the point. Seeing Monica Rambeau resurface in the hottest current Marvel franchise blows me away and just really makes me take a happy spiral down memory lane. Plus, Kat Dennings? YES PLEASE. Marvel, you have me really interested in seeing how this plays out.

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Playlist:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

CCR - Willy and the Poor Boys

Ministry - The Last Sucker

The Big Pink - Velvet (Single)

Mrs. Piss - Self Surgery

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh 

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Card:

I can't help but assume this is referring to the fact that we have had two days of glorious rain in LaLaLand and now that I will be off for the next five days, the sun will return and I will be unable to actually enjoy the weather. My folks back home will laugh at this, but the struggle for moisture and rain-soaked atmosphere is real. 

Isolation: Day 129

16 is new to me, but I'm digging their new albums Dream Squasher, just released on Relapse Records!

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Saturday we ended up having an impromptu Danny Boyle double feature. It started with his latest film Yesterday, which is absolutely fantastic. I'm not a very big Beatles fan, but I can definitely recognize the impact they've had on the world, so the idea that their music would disappear is a pretty interesting one, especially when your main character is the only person on Earth who remembers it.



Once Yesterday, I followed up an itch I've been meaning to scratch for quite some time now, and put on Boyle's 2011 Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. I hadn't seen this one since it was in the theaters:



Slumdog holds up 100%. Loved it.


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Playlist:

Cypress Hill - Elephants on Acid
16 - Dream Squasher
Coheed and Cambria - The Aftermath: Ascension
Various - James Brown's Funky People Vol. III

Card:

New, big things.

New Myrkur/New Hillary Woods

I love that the resurgence of Folk Horror has grown out of and subsequently helped perpetuate a return of Folk sentiment in other areas of culture, particularly music. Myrkur's Sophomore release M made my "Best of" list back in 2015, but I've not followed her since. That sometimes happens with Best of lists - albums make an impact when they're released, but the time and place of that impact may fade or transfer as the moment disintegrates, giving way to all the other new music that I'm constantly finding. Anyway, I stumbled across this new single this morning, and immediately remembered why I dug Myrkur so much.

You can pre-order the new Myrkur album, Folkesange, HERE. It drops March 20th on Relapse Records.

Speaking of Folk-ish Female musicians, how about a double-header? A new Hillary Woods dropped a few short moments ago, and it fits in nicely along Myrkur, further illustrating this Folk-flavored resurgence.



Ms. Woods' new album, Birthmarks, drops one week before the Myrkur on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.

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New episode of The Horror Vision is up! This episode, we watch and react to Jon Wright's delightful Grabbers, an Irish monster movie with a drunken twist that I personally loved.



Other topics include but are not limited to: AHS, Shudder's The Marshes, Osgood Perkins' Gretel and Hansel, the premiere of Netflix's Locke and Key, and Vault Comics' The Plot and Black Stars Above, two horror comics getting seemingly NO attention. Both are awesome.

Also available on Apple, Stitcher, and Google Play.

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Between work and having a few days off with my buddy Dave to hit two of the three LALA Land Mr. Bungle reunion shows, I haven't posted much of late, and I realized yesterday that I forgot to log the most recent episode of The X-Files I watched for Mr. Brown's list. Let's remedy that, because it was a good one: Season Four, Episode Two.

This is the one, folks. This is the episode that legendarily aired once and was never re-run on Network TV. I never saw it back in the day, or rather I think I saw the final few moments on a VHS recording a friend made, but I never had the context for those final images. Regardless, this one is really F'ed up. Home is violent, gross, filled with disturbing sexual imagery and concepts, and, maybe worst of all for Normal 90s America, just plain weird. After finally seeing it, I will say that if you strip all the hype/legend away, I'd say it's one of the best episodes of the show I've seen so far. Great writing, directing, acting, everything. The lighting in the farmhouse of ill repute is spectacular, and although the whole sordid mess owes a little to Tobe Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it really stands on its own two legs as a great piece of serial television, regardless of the era.


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Playlist:

sElf - Gizmodgery
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Boy Harsher - Careful
Anthrax - Among the Living
Antrax - Stomp 442
Corrosion of Conformity - Animosity
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
Testament - The Gathering
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Deja Vu
sElf - Super Fake Nice EP
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Myrkur - M
Slayer - Live Undead
Slayer - Decade of Aggression
Edu Comelles and Rafa Ramos Sania - Botanica De Balcon

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No card.

New Windhand Single Diablerie

Windhand dropped the second single off the upcoming Eternal Return, out 10/5 on Relapse. You can pre-order this HERE. I for one cannot wait!

2018: August 3rd - NEW WINDHAND!!!

This absolutely made my day! I've had a feeling for a while that a follow-up to one of my favorite records of the last ten years, Grief's Infernal Flower, was due, especially after that split 7" with Satan's Satyrs earlier in the year.

Listening to Grey Garden for the first time, my initial observations are:

1. The bass sounds like a fucking motor tucked into just the right spot beneath those twin guitars; reminds me a bit of the bass on my favorite tracks from Soundgarden's Superunknown.
2. Producer Jack Endino really brought Dorthia's vocals up in the mix here, and that's fantastic news.
3. The artwork, by Arik Roper, is beautiful beyond words, and somehow reminds me of the writing of Clarke Ashton Smith.

Eternal Return is slated to release on October 5th; pre-order it on Relapse Record's website HERE.

Playlist from yesterday:

Shockwaves Podcast 101 - Tubular Bells

Shockwaves Podcast 099 - Graham Skipper 

Tennis System - Pain EP

I'm sure I'm forgetting something I listened to, because I find it hard to believe that other than that Tennis System it was all Shockwaves, but work was nuts, so it took me a while to chew through most of two whole hour-plus podcasts.

I took K to see one of her favorite musicians last night, again at the Hotel Cafe. This time it was Justin Furstenfeld of the band Blue October. Justin does this "Open Book" show that's him on a small stage, telling stories from his life and accenting them with acoustic songs. I can't confess to being much a fan of the band, but as a low-key performer he was endearing and has a pretty great voice. This stories run the gamut from funny to hard-life-lessons-wrought, and in discussing being put on Paxil at 15, he solidified a theory I've had for a while now: the reason I can't directly relate to a lot of the music from the 00s is because that was the first generation of 'rock stars' - take Justin as an example of what that means today - raised on pharmaceuticals (ie anti-depressants) and, having never had that experience, it creates a palpable rift between them, their music, and me. 

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Big Change; think things through."Not certain what this is referring to, but I have a feeling I will know by the end of the day. Always good to have a forewarning against acting impulsively. 

2018: July 25th - New Video from Nothing

New Nothing! The album drops on August 24th and you can pre-order it from Relapse Records HERE and on their bandcamp.


Playlist from 8/24:

Killing Joke - Nighttime
Grimes - Visions
!!! - As If
NIN - Ghosts I-IV

No card again today. I' buttonholed at work with extensive logistics for the importation/exportation of live cells from South Africa into the U.S. and I have barely had time to do anything. Couple with this a pervading exhaustion, and a somewhat frustrating preoccupation with getting >60 seconds DwC clips on youtube to try and drum up views (of which we get no where near as many as I feel we should based on the amount of work I put in on editing), and I'm running on mental empty, so I can't even remember to pull from the Thoth Deck before I leave for work, and it takes all the free time I can muster in-between tasks at the office to even type this much out, let alone pull a card and attempt to interpret it.

Zombi - The Zombi Anthology

This was released via Relapse Records today. If you remember, this is the band that had an amazing recreation of John Carpenter's The Thing done stop motion with old school 3 3/4 GIJOE figures as a music video last year. That was my intro to their music and I've been waiting on this new record for what seems quite a long time. Well, it's here!

Nothing - Guilty of Everything

Can I get a Hell Yes! Brothers and Sisters, the new album by Nothing is out today on Relapse Records! Go to your local record store - if you're lucky to have one - or over to their bandcamp and buy Guilty of Everything.

This band really grabbed me with their 2013 E.P. Downward Years to Come and I've been waiting for this record since it was announced several months ago.