New Music From Crippled Black Phoenix!!!

 

From the upcoming album The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature, Out November 29th on Seasons of Mist. Pre-order HERE.

Talk about Epic. The song and the video. Well done.

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Watch:

I rewatched Chris Thomas Devlin and Samuel Bodin's Cobweb last night. This is definitely now an annual Autumn viewing for me. Cobweb has that fairytale gloss over it that I associate with Trick r' Treat and The Mortuary Collection. 

Having just seen Coraline on the big screen for the first time with the recent anniversary screenings, I can make an educated guess Cobweb also shares some DNA with that film, as some key visual and storytelling elements come from similar places. All in all, a very welcome addition to my Autumnal viewing schedule. 

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Read:

The urge had been building for a while, and since I'm in between newly released books at the moment, I decided to reread China Miéville's Perdido Street Station for the third time. 

This is not a light undertaking - the first and my favorite in Miéville's Bas-Lag trilogy, this novel is the very definition of an opus; the plot has so many moving pieces, all of which stay in their own lane and eventually coalesce in a manner I find absolutely stunning. Picking this one up and slipping back into it, I'm also overcome with an unexpected nostalgia; this book was incredibly important to me when I first found it and Miéville back in the early 00s. I was a day-of-release supporter for every book he published from 2005 to 2016 (the trilogy was complete by the time I found it) and only fell off after my life exploded that same year. Since he's published several novels on my list, his most recent a collaboration with Keanu Reeves set in the actor's Bezerker universe. I haven't read the Bezerker comics past the first issue or two of the original series, so this is low on my list. But I'd like to think I'll get to it eventually. 

Also, since I've ended up kind of listing the author's works, I'd be remiss if I did not mention his truly bizarre revamping of Dial H for Hero, twelve issues published by DC Comics in 2012.

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Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

The Misfits - Static Age

The Misfits - American Psycho

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

Algiers - The Underside of Power

Beastmilk - Climax

Jesu - Sun Down Sun Rise

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)

The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

Bauhaus - Go Away White

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Card:

Today's card for study is the Three of Disks - Works:

A welcome reminder this morning, as well. Success through effort. Balance; solid foundations yield sturdy domiciles. 

Crippled Black Phoenix - Lost

 

From the new Crippled Black Phoenix record, Ellengæst, which dropped October 9th on Seasons of Mist. You can order the record HERE. Full disclosure: I haven't even heard this record yet. I have a bit of an interested/not interested relationship with this band, and I completely forgot this was coming out.

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Watch:

I had the absolute joy of watching Josh Boone's New Mutants on Friday, and I have to say, I LOVED it. I talk about it on the latest episode of The Horror Vision, which will be on all streaming platforms, youtube,  IGTV, and the little widget in the top righthand corner of this blog by the time you read this. In a nutshell - see it.

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Playlist:

Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

White Lung - Eponymous

Young Widows - Old Wounds

Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend

Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

Anna Von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets

Windhand - Eternal Return

Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance

System of a Down - Eponymous

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

Etta James - Third Album

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Card:

Completion. Full power. I realized on Saturday that, despite my mental lapses and sagging work ethic, I am very nearly complete with nearly half of the second book in the Shadow Play trilogy. The image from this card is a perfect representation of how I feel when I reflect upon that.

Bauhaus - Stigmata Martyr

This is still one of the most badass songs I've ever heard. In my quest to re-read/read Neil Gaiman's Sandman from the beginning through to the end Bauhaus just jumps off the music shelf. Along with Joy Division and The Cure, Tones on Tail and The Smiths (esp. Meat is Murder for Vol. 4 Seasons of Mist) Bauhaus is a perfect soundtrack for Neil Gaiman's lush dreamscape set on the outmost fringes of the old DCU.  I'm currently reading Vol. 5, A Game of You, one of the volumes I'd not read before (I started reading the book during it's initial run with The Kindly Ones, which I believe was either the second or third-to-last volume. Of course I went back and snagged Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House and Dream Country as they were published in trades and then left what was essentially the middle of the saga untouched on my "To buy and Read" list. However, I very much wait for the particular moods for music/film and comics/books to overtake me before I lock into them, i.e. I can't just pick up Sandman and start reading it anymore than I can just through on Bauhaus any old time. I have to be in that particular headspace. I've begun re-reading Sandman many times over the years, as those first three volumes are among my most read comics. However I can't always sustain the mood to go all the way through, not with all the bloody distractions of everyday life. I've also often hit the $$$ wall, starting it and making my way through the beginning volumes only to find I didn't quite have it in my budget to buy the three or four volumes I was missing. Recent bursday presents from my wife have solved that particular problem).

Whenever a comic or book strikes such a strong harmonic frequency with a particular band or album I always wonder if the author themselves - or in this case any of the awesome artists involved - listening to that same music at the time of creating. And if that is indeed the case, the fact that you can pick that up suggests to me that the author/artist's hands are literally transducing the energy in its audio wave form into energy in a visible form, like a microphone is a transducer that takes audio waves and changes them into the physical rearrangement of magnetic iron particles (on analog tape) or 1's and 0's in the digital domain?

Something to think about.