Hangman's Chair Live at Hellfest!!!

 

Another fantastic live performance as posted by the fantastic ARTE Concert YouTube page.

I'm super new to Hangman's Chair - I discovered them by way of singer Cédric Toufouti's work on Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments - so I had no idea they were big enough for a crowd like this. Always nice to see a band you're sweet on getting an ocean of love at a live performance. 

I've posted recently about the band's new album, Saddiction, which you can pick up from Nuclear Blast HERE.
 

---

---

---

Watch:

I really think I need to spend a little more time talking about Severance than I did the other day. This is, for me, the most important show I know of at the moment.

This show is an allegory for the ramifications of the Corporate paradigm we live in and its effect on human beings, and it's a damn good one, at that. It's really made me reflect on my life and my job, which is becoming so all-consuming that it's affecting my writing, my sanity, and maybe my overall person. I have dreams that express the fear I'm being slowly brainwashed into one of these fucking corporate pod-people, and it's terrifying. 

One of the major plotlines of Severance is how the "Outties" - i.e., the person when not at work- basically sell their "Innies" into slavery. Of course, the Outtie does not go unscathed. I've only seen far enough (season 2, episode 2) into the show to get a feel for one character's home life, but it's clear they are not happy. Because, of course, to draw a really strong comparison from Severance to a film I love:

You cannot treat one aspect of yourself poorly and not expect it to affect the overall organism. 

This is an exaggerated pretense of how I feel about my work-life balance, a term that in and of itself makes me crazy. I spend far too much of my time working, thinking about work, solving my Innie's problems, and in this way, I feel like, just as The Substance is a remarkable allegory for beauty and self-worth, Severance is an allegory for the trade-off we make for money, status and all the other trappings of 'success.' To many people who know me, I might appear successful. In my own mind, however, I realize the damage the trade-off is doing. 

Word.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Ministry - The Squirrely Years

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Flying Lotus - ASH OST

The Veils - Asphodels

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil

Heilung - Lifa

David Bowie - Outside

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Slow Crush - Aurora

Low - Trust

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• XVI: The Tower

• Seven of Wands

Look to your dreams for what comes after the Fall. Of special note may be causes previously thought irrelevant.

Desecration of Souls!

 

Working on a short story on Nosleep that has a very "Satanic Panic" vibe, so allow me to perpetuate that mood with some classic Mercyful Fate!

The first chapter of I Found Evidence My Parents Were Members of a Satanic Cult is up HERE. Check it out and throw up the horns when King belts out those infamous lines:

Copulation in the night 

Two shadows upon a grave 

Screams of pleasure, 

Screams of pain 

Young lovers you must be insane 

It's desecration of souls 

In their holy lair 

So I say again stay away 

It's desecration of souls

No on-the-grave fuckin' in my story (yet), but this definitely helps offset the otherwise all-encompassing Christmas vibe as we celebrate the holiday early this Saturday.

---

---

---

Watch:

I had not heard of Grafted or Co-writer/Director Sasha Rainbow before Bloody Disgusting posted about it yesterday, but without even watching this trailer, I am in!

It's no secret that Body Horror was already on the rise as a subgenre when Coralie Fargeat's The Substance blew everyone's doors off earlier this year; will it go the route of the Zombie and Possession themes and proliferate to an unsustainable level? Hopefully not, but if that happens, it's still a ways down the road. Until then, let's sit back and watch through our fingers as filmmakers bring us 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Pixies - Doolittle

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Grandy Ducy - Petite Fours

Nothing - Guilty of Everything

Circle Jerks - Group Sex

Suicidal Tendencies - Eponymous

Genevieve Artadi - Forever Forever

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Version)

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Deftones - Ohms

---

---

---

New Music from Mogwai!

The legendary Mary Anne Hobbs premiered a new track by Mogwai a couple of days ago, and now here's the video! No word on a new album yet, but smart money says it's coming, as the band also announcned a 2025 world tour, details of which are HERE.

 

---

---

---

Watch:

K and I went to see Coralie Fargeat's new film The Substance last night. Pretty sure I will not see a better film for the remainder of the year; Robert Eggers has Nosferatu coming, but The Substance is just... see it on a big screen, that's all I can say.

 

The term "Batshit crazy" gets thrown around a lot - hell, I do a fair share of the throwing myself - but once in a great while, a film comes along that reminds me I really had forgotten what Batshit Crazy is. This is that film. I cannot believe I saw this in a big box theatre in Middle America. The Substance is absolutely INSANE. It almost wears out its welcome, then doubles down on the crazy and just... it feels like the most Body Horror movie I may have ever seen. And I don't offer that lightly.

---

---

---

Read:

Sweet little comic shop pickup I wasn't expecting the other day; shout out to Ryan and Rick's Comic City for pulling this aside when they got it in, presumably from someone selling some old comics:

Published by Arrow Comics in 1986, this was a fascinating read. Not nearly as intricate as Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, this is totally outsider art from before Zombies had become mainstream. A group of survivors make their way through a world not only overrun with Zombies but intelligent zombies. There appears to be a classification here, with the intelligent Dead few and far between but able to manipulate or control the hordes of shambling dead. Very cool concept and execution, a nice piece of the 80s Black and White Explosion's history I'd missed until now. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Bauhaus - Volume One: 1979 - 1983

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Type O Negative - October Rust

The Damned - A Night of a Thousand Vampires

White Hex - Gold Nights

---

---

---

New Music and a DIY Synthesizer from A Place to Bury Strangers!!!

From A Place to Bury Strangers' upcoming album Synthesizer, out October 4th on Death by Audio. Pre-order HERE.

The INSANE thing about this pre-order is there's a version of the album that comes with the electrical component to turn the album sleeve into a DIY synthesizer! How awesome is that?

 

---

---

---

NCBD:

My biggest NCBD Pull in a while. Let's dig right the f**k in!

What a salacious cover! Haha, this book has taken a really "off the rails" turn as of the last issue, and I'm here for it. Loving this cross-country journey with JC and his 'friends,' especially with all the weirdoes they meet along the way. Issue 6 really backed up my Shade The Changing Man: The American Scream comparison, and I'm happy to see where it goes from there.

Okay, going by the cover, we have A) Destro, B) the "Crimson Twins," and B) a metric sh*t ton of B.A.T.S. I can't think of a better formula for a Destro comic. After reading the second issue of Scarlett, I'm still not loving that book - but will definitely stick with it - but I am 100% ALL IN on Destro!

The final issue of Jeff Lemire's weird fiction opus to childhood, giant bug-men and, ah, crime. 

Again, this cover just sells the F*CK out of this one. Am I the only one getting a visual homage to old-school issue #73 here? That issue was the kick-off to the original "Cobra Civil War," and this issue's solicitation on League of Comic Geeks begins, "WAR WITH SERPENTOR!" Good things await. 

The final issue of what has turned out to be a very excellent mini-series that has me kind of rethinking my ideas about jumping off TMNT. I think I will be picking up Jason Aaron's new number one next week. 

Another final issue to what also turned out to be a total sleeper for me. Loved the tone of this whole series: the stakes are high, but there's a touch of comedy in the lining. Well-played Mr. Riser!

The end of another arc for What's the Furthest Place From Here? Thinking of re-reading this again from the beginning, but I guess that would be better suited before it comes back in a few months. I haven't seen any solicitations for its return, but there's no way this is the end. 

---

---

---

Watch:

This looks like it might be this year's equivalent to Titane. Seeing this trailer twice now, 

I'm really excited about both the movie and the fact that, suddenly, Autuer Horror directors and the companies that distribute their films appear to be taking a much less revealing approach to cutting trailers.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Tones on Tail - Everything!

The Damned - Night of 1000 Vampires: Live in London

Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation E.P.

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Various - Mulholland Drive OST

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Two of Wands

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• Page of Swords

Partnership or duplicity? You can't struggle against the grain and hope to find out; you have to physically use your intellect—i.e., put it into action outside of your head—to root out potential deception.

Great. Another work pull. I hate that I've been absorbed into an uncomfortably corporate environment again, where everyone's actions are suspect.