The first track off Testament's upcoming fourteenth studio album, Para Bellum, is out October 10th on Nuclear Blast Records. You can pre-order a copy HERE.
Fourteen albums? That just blows me away. I've dodged in and out of keeping tabs on these guys. Most of their records still sound fantastic to me, and if this first track is any indication, Para Bellum will be no different.
Watch:
Last night I saw Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno's 2016 Shin Godzilla on the big screen for the second time in three days.
Unlike many of my friends, I did not grow up with Godzilla. Certainly, I knew what the monster was. Who doesn't? The big G has occupied a fairly lofty space in the cultural lexicon for longer than I have been alive. I'm not sure that, without that layer of nostalgia, I'll ever be able to go back and embrace the Godzilla movies of the past (maybe, though), but between this and Minus One, hot damn am I a convery. This movie is STUNNING. Some of the best effects I have ever seen theatrically. They build a world and destroy it and, although I know I'm not watching half a dozen skyscrapers in Tokyo topple, I believe that's exactly what I'm seeing.
Read:
I'm halfway through Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and to complement it as research for Shadow Play Book Two, I've also procured a $10 Kindle copy of Richard Ellmann's celebrated biography of Wilde, Oscar Wilde:
This is often shown titled as Oscar Wilde: Pulitzer Prize Winner; however, I find that adding the book's accolade to the title is a bit churlish, to say the least.
I've pretty much accepted that despite the literal tower of books on my 'to-read' pile, the remainder of my 2025 reading will most likely be reserved specifically for research. Two exceptions are the Nathan Ballingrud and Laird Barron novellas due next month. Other than that, I'm all in on researching both Victorian and Elizabethan England, which have winnowed their way into my novel as main characters of the second act.
Playlist:
Windhand - Eternal Return
Sleep - Dopesmoker
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Testament - Infanticide AI (single)
Mastodon - Leviathan
Testament - The Gathering
Portishead - Third
Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel
Hall & Oats - Rock 'N' Soul, Part 1
Deftones - private music
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XVII: The Star
• XX: Adjustment
• Eight of Swords
Struggling interrupts the path to enlightenment.
That's a pretty vague interpretation, but I'm picking up what I'm putting down. This is a work-oriented Pull, letting me know that the theoretical middle finger roadblocks I'm throwing in certain folks' direction are perhaps counterproductive. I would argue that corporate backstabbing and rigamarole are also counterproductive, but that's just it - stop pointing that out and try to work past it.
The new album from Revocation lands in under a month and I'm pretty psyched. I've especially taken to this pre-release single "Cronenberged," the name of which almost immediately signified how I would feel for it. And with a title referencing the Godfather of Body Horror, Revocation and Director, Cinematographer and FX guru David Brodsky 100% delivered!
You can pre-order the new album, New Gods, New Masters, from Metal Blade Records HERE.
NCBD:
Another Wednesday, another NCBD pull list! Super excited about these, so let's get into it!
So excited for the next chapter in this cosmic game of thrones (not a reference to George R. Martin). Hickman brings his trademark complexity, but also, he once again manages to infuse it with a sense of excitement I've not seen anyone bring to the big two in quite some time.
G.I.Joe issue #9 was, I think, the best of the series thus far, so despite the instant exhaustion I feel looking at a cover displaying Cover Girl and Baroness as the stars of the issue, I have high hopes. I'd just really like to move on from them soon.
I feel a re-read coming on for Exquisite Corpses. Interesting to note that issue 3 had Pornsak Pichetshote and Valentine De Landro were credited as Writer/Artist, so I'd kind of assumed this might be a project that Tynion and Walsh had conceived, set up and handed off; however, that's not the case. League of Comic Geeks' entry for this issue shows the founders back on board for the next few solicitations.
The first issue of Catacombs of Torment was a blast, so I've been jonesing to read #2, due out today! There is nothing quite as satisfying as a fantastic Horror Anthology, especially when it's in comic book form (This is probably based on the fact that I saw Creepshow as a very young child, and it imprinted on me forevermore).
Watch:
After rewatching Osgood Perkins' The Monkey this past Sunday night, I was reminded just how much I'm looking forward to his next film, Keeper, due in theatres November 14th!
I'm continually amazed at not only how fast Mr. Perkins works, but how he's really matured as a filmmaker of late.
Playlist:
The Knife - Silent Shout
The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
The Knife - Deep Cuts
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Drug Church - Prude
King Woman - Doubt EP
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (pre-release singles)
Helmet - Aftertaste
Spotlights - Love & Decay
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XVI: The Tower
• XII: The Hanged Man
• 7 of Disks: Failure
It'd been a minute since I put hands on my Thoth deck, so that's what I pulled for today. Looks like to change a paradigm, I'm going to have to go through a sacrifice and fail once or twice. Not sure what this is alluding to; might be the new methodology I've been tweaking for working on Shadow Play Book 2. Might be work-related.
I love that Steve Moore has done an original score for every movie Joe Begos has made except his first. I love everyone of those scores, own them all on vinyl, and am happy to share the news that Terror Vision.
My god do I love the design on this one! You can pre-order the soundtrack HERE, and from what I'm seeing, Jimmy and Stiggs is still in wide release up until Thursday when the new stuff comes out. I'm going to try to drive into Nashville to see it again, and I have to implore the rest of you to make the effort as well. It's not a perfect film, but it's made for the big screen and supporting something so DIY in big box chains is VITAL to our way of life as fans.
Watch:
Pierre Tsigaridis's new film Traumatika is getting a lot of hype coming out of recent festival screenings, and I'm super curious. I really liked his previous film, Two Witches, which I watched on the Arrow Streaming service back when it first landed in 2022. I can't say I remember the film very well, but that's definitely not the movie's fault. It usually takes a viewing or two for things to stick.
Early reports and all the promotional material make Traumatika sound pretty daunting, but we'll see. I watched about a third of this trailer and it was enough to get me further on board, so I'm hoping come September 12th, this pops up on a big screen in my neck of the woods. The blurb on Letterboxd mentions two phrases that always suggest a promising formula for Horror: "Night Terrors" and "Demonic Possession."
Read:
I finished Stephen Graham Jones' latest novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter over the weekend. This is the kind of novel that leaves a deafening vacuum when it ends, where you just look at the other books on your shelf or in your queue and can't quite bring yourself to replace it right away.
Luckily, while I've begun picking at my Sandman re-read again, my main focus for the next few months and possibly the remainder of the year will be on a list of titles I have determined I need to read to continue to work on the sequel to Shadow Play. Some of these are books I've known I'm going to have to read for a few years now, and some are new to the list. The point is, I'm finally working through this project the way I should have been all along.
First up: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. It's a shame I haven't already read this, anyway, so I'm finally making up for lost time. a handful of chapters in, I'm hooked, even if it did take me a few to adjust to the more flowery, 'purple' prose style. Once I readjusted, it fit like a glove.
I'm just reading the cheapie Kindle edition, so I thought I'd post one of the more interesting covers from previous editions here, published by Penguin Clothbound Classics in 2000. Yeah, not the best 'vintage' for a book with this much history, but honestly, after google image searching this one, I don't know that it ever received a cover I actually like.
Playlist:
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu
Secret Chiefs 2 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi
White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000
Zombi - Shape Shift
Ruin of Romantics - Self Control (single)
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent
Brittany Bindrim - Ever So Slowly (single)
Revocation - The Outer Ones
The Body - No One Deserves Happiness
Fantômas - Delirium Cordia
In Slaughter Natives - Sacrosancts Bleed
Ministry - Houses of the Molee
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
ISIS - Panopticon
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Pentacles
• XVI: The Tower
• XI: Justice
I saw the Knight of Disks - which I often equate with saving money, and knew exactly what I had to do. I had literally been thinking about it just before the pull, so this was an easy one. Especially after adding in The Tower and Justice.
I dug out Pulp's Separations yesterday and just had an absolute blast with it. Forgot how much I love this album. Here's the "hit."
I still haven't been in the headspace to give Pulp's latest record, this year's More, a proper listen, but perhaps soon.
Watch:
Last night I drove an hour into Nashville to catch the new Joe Begos film Jimmy & Stiggs on the big screen. 100% worth it!
This movie is the fucking definition of balls-to-the-wall DIY. So loud, so neon, so METAL! Begos stars alongside Matt Mercer in a whiskey-drenched, cocaine-fueled fight to the death against aliens who invade his apartment and do some pretty heinous things to the two friends, the titular Jimmy (Begos) and Stiggs (Mercer). Fantastic on-screen chemistry. Like Christman, Bloody Christmas, some of the dialogue goes a bit off the rails for me (pun intended), but it doesn't matter. I'm in awe at the sheer force of will that is the Joe Begos filmmaking machine. See this in the theatre, and when you do, arrive early for the two fake trailers and stay late for the behind-the-scenes.
Playlist:
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Boredoms - Chocolate Synthesizer
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
lords. - bleeding out
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Pulp - Separations
The Veils - Total Depravity
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
BESET - Most Foul
HEALTH & NIN - Isn't Everyone (single)
NIN - As Alive As You Need Me To Be (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm just launched a Kickstarter for his new The Art of the Fae Bound Deck Art Book. Check that out HERE.
• Kings of Wands
• VIII: Strength
• VI: The Lovers
Drive, Strength and Passion. Three things I find myself contemplating A LOT. I have them, but do I have enough of them? Is this an eternal question all creators ask themselves?
Ritual Howls announced a new record and dropped an awesome new track, so let's all rejoice! You can pre-order a super nifty neon green vinyl on their Bandcamp right HERE.
I realized I completely forgot about and never ordered the band's previous release, 2023's Virtue Falters, so I have to go back and take care of that at some point. But this is a very well-timed release; we're approaching Autumn, and just over the last two days, I've felt twitches of it. First, I pulled out the copy of The Damned's live Night of 1000 Vampires the other day, an album Mr. Brown gifted me and that I played continuously last autumn. Then yesterday I had a taste for Joy Division. So, having a new Howls' record for Halloween 2025 will be a welcome event.
NCBD:
Another easy week, but everything here is something I can't wait to read! Let's go:
The penultimate issue of Daniel Warren Johnson's run, which ends next month with Transformers issue 24! The cover says it all - I really dig what they've been doing with ol' Ultra Magnus, and in general, the Autobots are in such dire straits, I can't wait to see how this all plays out.
I LOVED issue one of the first Epitaphs from the Abyss spin-off mini series, Blood Type, and am looking forward to more.
Hands down the best regularly produced Batman book I've read since Morrison's run almost twenty years ago now. I know this ends in a few issues, but I'll enjoy Dark Patterns while I can. Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman are really operating at peak performance on this one.
Watch:
I found this trailer for Matt Stuertz's new feature, Human, via Bloody Disgusting, which had a headline comparing it to Greg Araki meets Evil Dead 2. I see the Araki for sure, not 100% certain I see the Raimi. Regardless, for what looks like a super small budget, I am intrigued and won't hold a Howie Mandel cameo against the film.
Playlist:
The Damned - Night of 1000 Vampires
Windhand - Eternal Return
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (pre-release singles)
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Witchthroat Serpent - Trove of Oddities at the Devil's Driveway
Sleep - Dopesmoker
QOTSA - Rated R
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Joy Division - Substance
Ritual Howls - Follow the Sun (single)
Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Ritual Howls - A Safe Haven From the Sun (single)
Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• V: The Hierophant
• Seven of Wands
Emotional breakthrough leads beyond accepted dogma/practices to a victory of Will.
First, let's take a moment to marvel at the artistic merit of these three particular cards. My god - I'm blown away every time I stop to examine Grimm's art in this deck. Not just the actual art, but the concepts and pulling together of so many similar attributes - stoner rock, Weedian folklore, Occult influences, 70s Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Breathtaking, I tell you.
Okay, so what the hell is this pull saying? I've finally knuckled down and have been writing very nearly every day, and it's paying off. The book I'm working on - Shadow Play Two - is extremely difficult to write. I have a timeline that dates back to Elizabeathan England and draws in a lot of minor historical figures. I'm having trouble shaping the second act of the book - which I'm back to thinking will take place in both Elizabeathan and Victorian England, and a lot of my work is slow going.
I love this song. LOVE. I was initially introduced to it via Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects Soundtrack, and for most of the 00s, it appeared on my burned CD mix compilations. I spent some serious time zoned out on various substances, just feeling this song - so much to feel!
NCBD:
An easy week on the wallet for once:
Ericka Slaughter's origin continues. I'm digging these flashback issues; however, it perpetually thwarts my desire for the current timeline story to move forward!
I'm really enjoying Larry Hama's ARAH as a totally hyperbolic version of Joe. Funny that this book used to be so rooted in reality. As I've suggested here before, though, after 300+ issues, you'd have to take things into weird territory to keep it interesting. Yet, make no mistake. A lesser writer would have rendered this title obsolete with all the AI, cyborgs, genetic mutations and, well, Serpentors that fill its pages. Not Hama. Still solid after all these years.
Watch:
I'm not sure why, but until last Sunday, I had no interest in watching Season 2 of Netflix's TheSandman adaptation. My Drinking with Comics host Mike Shinabargar recently mentioned that the final episode was set to drop on 7/31 and that he'd like to cover the show. After a few hours of yard work in the particularly grueling heat, I came inside, collapsed onto the couch, and fired up the episode, Seasons of Mist.
I think two things are going on here. One, I think I'm way more attached to the stories adapted in the first season than this one, so it was harder for me to accept any changes (same with "24 Hours" from the first volume). Two, Tom Sturridge has really come to embody the character of Morpheus. The dour expression, the ever-changing, always confounding hair, the glassy stare. He just nails it in every scene this season. I've just hit the point where the season and the show move into their final arc in adapting The Kindly Ones, and this particular storyline in the comics is another I'm super attached to. So far, no complaints. I've heard this is around the point where the series begins to feel rushed, but so far, I'm not getting that. This could very well be because, when I began reading The Sandman near the end of its monthly run, I jumped in on The Kindly Ones, and at the time, the only collections available in trade were the first three volumes, Preludes and Noctures, Doll's House and Dream Country. The latter three were adapted as Season One of the show, so it stands to reason that, for someone who didn't read volumes 4-8 until later and thus, know them less intimately, adapting the four seasons I know makes this show fit my experience with The Sandman like a glove. Season Two effectively starts with Seasons of Mist (Volume 4), moves into A Game of You (Volume 5), and I think, bypasses virtually everything from Volumes 6-8.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Ian Lynch - All You Need is Death OST
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Hangman's Chair - Saddiction
Deafheaven - Sunbather
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time Are Vast
Benjamin Booker - LOWER
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IX: The Hermit
• Five of Pentacles
• XXI: The World
Anticipate setbacks by taking a strategic withdrawal and considering the bigger picture. This is a 'work' reading, and it's as timely as it is on the money.
One of my all-time favorite Sabbath deep-cuts and among their best lyrics. Finding this blew me away in a week where I've been pretty blown away at what can be found on YouTube from the "Before Times."
Watch:
The thumbnail image for Shudder's newest Shudder Original, Monster Island, instantly caught my eye with what appeared to be a Creature of the Black Lagoon-like monster. Here's the trailer:
What a fantastic concept - a U.S. soldier and a Japanese soldier stranded on an island during WWII have to overcome their differences to survive being stalked by a monster. I tried to find the time to watch this over the weekend, but most of my free 'watch' time has been spent enamored with The Sandman Season Two, so I'll get to this one later this week.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Witchthroat Serpent - Trove of Oddities at the Devil's Driveway
Escape Driver - No Fate
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
John Carpenter - Prince of Darkness OST
John Carpenter - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services
Rein - Reincarnated
The Revolting Cocks - Attack Ships on Fire (single)
The Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers + Queers
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Ren - Vincent's Tale (single)
Aerosmith - Rocks
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Young Widows - Settle Down City
King Woman - Doubt EP
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Blackbraid - Blackbraid I
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
NIN - As Alive As You Need Me To Be (single)
NIN - Year Zero
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIX: The Sun
• Queen of Pentacles
• Six of Swords
Enlightenment and Emotional grounding make this a good time to make decisions.
What decision to make, though? This caught me a bit unaware, so I'll have the cards on my desk throughout the day, reminding me to keep the reading's lesson in mind.
Black Sabbath performing the criminally underrated "Cornucopia," one of my favorite tracks from 1972's Vol 4.
This recording, which was apparently included in the Vol. 4 box set Rhino released a couple of years back, is fantastic! When I went looking for clean copies of this song live, I never dreamed this was out there. I guess I should have sprung for that box set!
Posted to YouTube by Marc Jacobs - go give this channel a browse and a follow. Lots of great stuff!!!
Watch:
I had the honor to once again sit in on the Dread Broadcast, this time for their July recap panel discussion.
This aired live last night from 7:00 PM CST until 9:30 PM, but it's up in perpetuity and totally worth your time. So many great films and books covered, and we kicked it off with special guest Writer/Director/Actor Chris Riggi, whose new film Abduct blew both K and I away when we watched it this past Wednesday night.
This one has such a unique tone! Abduct is not a comedy, but it's funny in the way that a film about a group of friends undergoing an extremely messed-up situation can be funny. It's also not afraid to get a little mean and a lot Weird. This is currently a $2.99 rental on Prime and available for free on something called Fawesome. Either way, HIGHLY recommended.
Read:
A little bit of personal historical data.
The first time I saw Ozzy Osbourne live was August 23, 1992. I would have been 16 years old. This was the "No More Tours" tour. Goddamn, do I wish I still had the concert t-shirt I picked up!
Personally, I definitely could have done with more of the heavier No More Tears tracks, but the two they chose are favorites, so it's an even trade, as this would have also been the first time I ever heard any Sabbath songs performed live. I remember this show in a very vague way: I remember the World Music Theatre (now called something else) and the way the seats were, the lawn, the metal chicks who were, to my sixteen-year-old eyes, ravishing. I remember Ozzy and excitment of seeing him on stage, but I don't really remember the performance overall. Seeing this set list (thank the stars for Setlist.com. I mean, really), it all seems like a remember it, but I can't be sure I'm not just remembering the decades of knowing what Ozzy does live and grafting it atop the memory. Either way, Glad I went to this, which would have, I think, been my third concert ever.
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Cups
• Two of Wands
• XVI: The Tower
Deep emotional connection and a union of Wills lead to a paradigm shift. Hmm...
When I turned 49 in March, I made the statement that for my upcoming 50th year, I want to finally make the short film I've been talking about for the last few years. K is on board - she's Magick with a camera - and I have some rough ideas, but I've had a hard time knowing where to start. I think the cards here are telling me that I should perhaps consult more with her, and figure out a game plan together, as opposed to keeping it in my mind to just bring her in as camera. Props to Chris Riggi for, I think, indiretly planting this idea in my head.
The PERFECT 80s Hard Rock "slow" song. Not a ballad, but moody and great lyrics; a case where the kind of broad-stroke 80s hard rock platitudes pay off in dividends.
Watch:
Holy shit! Jason's back!!
I don't understand what the "Short-Form Vignette" description means in terms of where, exactly, this is premiering on Friday, August 13, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Will this be on YouTube? Peacock? Angry Orchard.com?
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - New Model
King Woman - Doubt EP
King Woman - Bury (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Wands
• O: The Fool
• King of Wands
Started rebuilding my writing routine last night. This is a conscious act of Will that, essentially, is a brand new journey, as all my positive inertia is long gone, and I will have to overcome the entropy of neglect.
It's Friday, and that means the new edition of Fangoia's weekly newsletter, The Terror Teletype, landed in my inbox while I slept. Reading this brief email packed with genre news and goodies is one of the little events that I look forward to every week. This time, Editor-in-Chief Phil Noble's editorial is a lovely little eulogy for Ozzy.
Also, later in the WTF section, Fango links to a 1988 television commercial featuring Ozzy promoting his then-latest album, No Rest for the Wicked.
WTF indeed. Throughout the first two decades of his solo career, Ozzy always flirted with having one foot in camp, and I think it was a reaction to the televangelist backlash and the general fears conservatives displayed toward his music, Heavy Metal in general, and Horror movies. Bark At the Moon's ridiculous costuming plays a bit differently when you think that maybe the idea was to present a Horror movie aesthetic constructed to make people laugh at the people who decried it as frightening or depraved.
NCBD Addendum:
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, primarily because I'll need to locate the original series and re-read it, but Black Mask's CALEXIT returned this week with the first issue of CALEXIT: The Battle for Universal City. Writer Matteo Pizzolo returns with new artist C. Granda and colorist James Offredi to deliver a gorgeous new chapter:
I'd seen this solicited but almost dismissed it as a hallucination. The original, three-issue series ran back in 2017-2018, and while we covered it on Drinking with Comics, and I know I liked it, I really remember nothing else about it. It will be nice this weekend to sit down, read the old series and jump directly into this new one. Also, really hope Black Mask can make a comeback, so of course I'll support what they do. They had a good couple of years at the end of the last decade, and then kind of disappeared. Would love to see more Black Mask books on the shelf again.
Playlist:
Lady Gaga - Mayhem
Ozzy Osbourne - Shot in the Dark (single)
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
Wake the Devil - Angel's Won't Cry (single)
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Two of Pentacles
• Two of Cups
• Ten of Pentacles
A change in balance leads to wealth.
I'm always hesitant to interpret concepts like 'wealth' at face value when dealing with the archetypes utilized in the cards. More likely, this is a nod to an upcoming triumph in undoing the negative inertia that has seized my brain when it comes to writing.
Probably my second favorite Ozzy track, "Shot in the Dark" is the final track on 1986's The Ultimate Sin. I knew this song from its inception as a single, and it wasn't until the early 90s that I heard the entire album from which it hails. At that time, I wasn't a fan of the album, just the song, which seemed like a moody anomaly on an otherwise, at-first-glance collection of so-so 80s hard rock (It didn't help that my high school girlfriend and her two older sisters played Ozzy non-stop for the three years we dated. Forced familiarity can indeed breed contempt, a lesson we could have applied to our relationship, as well).
Maybe ten years ago or so, I gave The Ultimate Spin another chance, and found that, not only did I remember a lot of the tracks, but I remembered them kindly. Excitedly, even. Since then, this has become a go-to Ozzy record for me. As much as I love and respect the man, I don't gel with a lot of his solo work. Riding high off No More Tears, I was ready to embrace Ozzmosis when it landed in 1995, but the lead single, "Perry Mason," just seemed like such a ridiculous song. Like Ozzy had somehow gone all the way around the bend into self-parody. The album didn't sit much better with me, and that was the last of his solo work I paid attention to until Mr. Brown got me into 2020's Ordinary Man circa 2021. Producer Andrew Watt ended up being the best thing to happen to the Ozzman in decades, as I'd rank Ordinary Man and Patient No. 9 as instant classics. Both records are of a caliber that, while the early stuff is still untouchable, hold their own.
I've made it my mission to comb through his catalogue and see if I missed anything.
NCBD:
Great pull list this week. Let's go!
Void Rivals has been picking up steam as we move toward the Quintesson War's start in upcoming issue 25. We have an army of Skuxxoids, Hot Rod and Springer, the Quintessons, Zerta, and Cobra La. That's A LOT of tension points for a story, and somehow, Kirkman balances them all perfectly, letting out little bits of steam here and there so we know that in a couple of issues, things are going to go OFF!
Zander Cannon's Sleep is the, ah, sleeper hit of 2025. Seriously, this book is fantastic! When I first picked up issue one, I thought the art would be a tonal aberration I wouldn't be able to get over. Turns out, it's the exact opposite. Cannon's style belies a dark underbelly that froths with blood and bad things.
Minor Arcana quickly proved itself as another burgeoning Jeff Lemire masterpiece, a la Fishflies. This time, however, there's a long run and a more involved plot. The sleepy seaside small town setting and exploration of a failed fortune teller are masks for something bigger and much more malevolent, and the reveals come slow and steady, once again showcasing the deep-seated influence of David Lynch in this man's storytelling.
Almost as if the Universe sent this cover to pay homage to Ozzy's passing. I have no idea what this book is about, but when I saw the title/cover combo, I knew I'd have to track it down.
James Tynion & Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses continues barreling along its destructive path and you're damn straight I'll once again have a front row seat! I have a feeling this book is going to really surprise us along the way. Not everything is as straightforward as it seems.
Watch:
For reasons I simply cannot fathom, about two years ago I walked away from HBOs Doom Patrol series and never came back. This wasn't intentional; I'm not really sure how I got like this, but I tend to leave shows - even shows I adore - hanging. Something kicked in again last week, and I rewatched the entire second season and am now perched atop the first episode of Season Three, which is unfamiliar ground for me.
I can't stress how much I love this show. It's absurd, moving, and outright bat shit. The look of it is among my favorite looks to any show or film - the lighting is soft, dark, but still colorful. The set design is symmetrical, cohesive and downright creepy A.F., when it needs to be. And the original, Dada-esque undertones Grant Morrison so lovingly wove through his run on the book in the 80s are always ever-present. These elements would be disparate and jarring in the hands of most, but this show blends them all perfectly.
Playlist:
Deee-Lite - Dewdrops in the Garden
Deee-Lite - World Clique
Primus - Antipop
Hot Stove Jimmy - It's a System...
Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid
Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes
Deadfly Buchowski - Russian Doll E.P.
Zombi - 2020
Zombi - Direct Inject
Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason (single)
Ozzy Osbourne - Down to Earth
Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• Two of Cups
• Four of Wands
Creative emotional support is needed to reclaim a regular sense of balance, i.e. in this case, duty. I remain in a non-writing paradigm. I did begin re-reading Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie, a much-needed and until now shirked necessity for, you know, working on the sequel. That's a major step for me, but I need to get back to a regular routine and it just seems to be drifting further and further away. A day stolen here or there just doesn't amount to much, and I think the cards are telling me that I need to ask K for help.
Can it be considered a 'cover' if there are members from the original band who wrote song performing in the band covering it? Probably. I'll say this - I am extremely attached to every song on The Thirsty Crows' Handman's Noose; however, this is fantastic!
Read:
I finally had a chance over the weekend to sit down and read Rebekah and David Ian McKendry's Barstow.
Four tight issues that tell a weird A.F. story that brings to mind Jeff Lemire and Gabriel H. Walta's Phantom Road and, I think, Greydon Clark's The Return. Barstow takes place in the desert, and if you've spent any time eating hallucinogens in Joshua Tree or an equivalent location, this will resonate. If you haven't, this is still a damn good time, with a mix of Body Horror, Satan Horror and a skosh of procedural thrown in to boot.
Watch:
Ari Aster's Eddington is probably not my favorite film of the year - its unflinching approach to America 2020 dovetails with the country we live in five years later. It doesn't pick at the low-hanging fruit by blaming politicians. Instead, it blames US.
As with Aster's previous film, Beau is Afraid, there is a lot of humor here. It's dark and subtle and twisted, though, and honestly, my uproarious laughter was, at one point during our showtime, misinterpreted by a fellow audience member. There could have been trouble, but instead, I think the misinterpreter realized his mistake as he adjusted to the movie's voice, and by the end of the film, he was laughing just as loud as I was.
I will say, I was expecting something approaching Civil War's "reasons to hate humanity" vibe, and instead, Aster pokes a kind of almost good-natured fun at just how stupid our species is.
I became excited when I saw that a new NIN track dropped yesterday. Alas, from what I see, this does not arrive ahead of an album, but the soundtrack for Tron: Not This Again. With NIN helming it, the OST will likely be solid, but it will likely lean into instrumentals. As much as I dig Ross and Reznor's ambient/score music, I was hoping for a full-on, proper NIN album. We'll see.
Watch:
Well, what the hell do you know? Stranger Things season 5 finally gets a teaser?
The wait on this one has been ludicrous to say the very least. That said, I have faith the Duffer Brothers will stick the landing and possibly propel the cast into a Golden Girls-esque sitcom as a sort of postscript.
I can't stress enough, A) How much I loved the previous season, and B) how much damage I think postponing this final season has done the show overall. You can't drag stories like this out this long and expect the material not to suffer.
Read:
A few weeks ago, my good friend Chris Saunders clued me in on a series of novels written by Matt Dinniman called Dungeon Crawler Carl. This is a series with six books already released, so that's usually a pretty good excuse for me to pass (Friends have been asking me to read Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books for nearly 20 years, but even back then, there were too many of them; there's just too much shit to read!)
Here's the solicitation:
"You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.
Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show."
The thing that drew me in was how much Douglas Adams I sensed as Chris described it to me. The aliens show up to drain and destroy Earth for blatantly corporate reasons, and use the "game show" as an industry unto itself. So far, I definitely see the Adams influence, but also, Dinniman is a fantastic writer whose prose moves swiftly without forsaking his characters. An extremly enjoyable reading experience.
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Four of Wands
• Eight of Swords
• Ten of Wands
Completion. Interference and thwarted Will.
Completion is blocked by our own lacklustre willpower to actually focus. Interference is the enemy of all success, i.e. my waivering attention span of late is severly hampering my work.
From the LONG-AWAITED album Private Music, out August 22nd. Order HERE. Easily one of my most anticipated albums of the last five years, I'm absolutely stoked we're getting this next month. I cannot wait to put on headphones, smoke some pot (increasingly rare) and listen to this record from start to finish.
NCBD:
HUGE haul today. Let's dive in:
Oni's resurrection of EC comics continues to evolve. No sooner did Epitaphs From the Abyss end, than the the Grave Digger has passed the proverbial Horror mic to his cohort, The Tormentor, for the new series Catacomb of Torment.
New Z News! I still have barely scratched the surface of the backlog of issues I picked up in Chicago last month, but good to no it's still going.
Has this series had the best covers of 2025? Maybe. I'm still loving that this is bi-monthly and wondering how we lucked into that? Reminds me of the old 80s Turtles, when it would come out bi-monthly or... maybe later. Either way, it's been very cool to see Jason Aaron come on board with the brothers completely pulled apart and slowly... oh so slowly... put them back together.
Oh man. Crisis time - Phantom Road's current arc, The Horror Men, ends next issue and the solicitations on League of Comic Book Geeks ends there, so that means, with Lemire having all the irons in the fire he does, this series is about to go back on hiatus.
One of my most anticipated books when it's dropping, it's hard to imagine going another couple of months without Phantom Road. But I guess we do what we have to do.
I have been waiting for Imperial issue 2 for what feels like months! I loved the first issue, and cannot wait to jump back in, especially with Hulk's proclamation of "War" at the end of the first issue!
This whole "Baroness as a Joe" scenario continues despite the hope last issue's cover instilled in me. Oh well, I'll just shut my mouth because at this point, there's probably no way I'm not going to continue this series. The one silver lining is the burgeoning friendship between Clutch and Hound. LOVE that development A LOT! Hear Mike Shin and I talk about this on the new episode of Drinking with Comics, HERE.
\Speaking of the latest episode of Drinking with Comics, I convinced my cohost, Mike Shin, to read Ben Winters and Leomacs' Philip K. Dick amalgamation, Benjamin, and he loved it! What's not to love? PKD lived an absolutely fascinating life, and, in retrospect, it blows my mind that it took this long for someone to use that life as fodder for a fictional story! Issue two drops tomorrow, and I cannot wait!!!
Two episodes from the finale and I have to say, Ian Carpenter and Aaron Martin's Hell Motel (i.e. Slasher, season six) might just be the Horror Event of 2025! Every episode has been fantastic, but this week's? Chef's fucking kiss!
This show is so expertly plotted. A perfectly maddening Whodunit? combined with all the beautifully brutal flourishes Slasher is known for, the combination just works so goddamn well! Also, while I gave props to Martin and Carpenter up front as the creators, lest it not be forgotten that the inimitable Adam MacDonald directed all of these nasty little fuckers.
Playlist:
Ty Segall - Possession
Deftones - White Pony
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Deftones - Eponymous
dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles
Drug Church - Prude
Hangman's Chair - Saddiction
YUNGBLUD - Idols
Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (Vol. 1)
Willie Nelson - Oh What a Beautiful World Songs of Rodney Crowell
Reggie Watts - Fuck Shit Stack (single)
Jogger - Nephicide (single)
Mi Loco Tango - Rocco and His Brothers (single)
Abby Sage - Smoke Break (single)
Abby Sage - The Rot
Crystal Castles - II
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Nine of Swords
• IX: The Hermit
• Nine of Wands
Two nines? Not sure this has occurred for me before. Climax and accomplishment? That combined with the Hermit actually lead me to believe this is a direct acknowledgement by the cosmos (ie my inner self) that I've earned the break I've taken, through the accomplishment of finishing my book and the culmination of Sweetie's existence. But it's almost time to really tune back in,.
