New Music from The Veils!!!

Not gonna lie, I'm missing the weird Veils I fell in love with on Total Depravity. These last few releases have been so... heavy. And yet... damn. These guys have so much emotional gravitas in each song... it's always breathtaking. The comparisons to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are unavoidable, but also, those comparisons most definitely sell The Veils short. 

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Watch:

I don't know very much about Resident Evil, so I am uninvested. I saw a handful of the previous cinematic adaptations and liked them as popcorn Action/Horror flicks. This is Zach Cregger's take, and, although the trailer starts with a deja vu moment to Barbarian, it has me. 

I appreciate that those invested in the games and their lore might not appreciate his self-professed 'different' take on the material. I'm just hoping for a good flick. I was originally bummed that he made two outstanding original films and then got quickly co-opted to do a pre-existing IP. This trailer is making me feel better about that.

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Read:

I took a brief detour from my Dark Tower reread to burn through an advance copy of Jessica Lacy's (i.e., the author formerly known as Ivy Tholen) newest novel, Fatally Yours, this week. This is the new version of Mother Dear, and I can say, while Jessica didn't change much, she definitely tightened this one, and I cruised through in just a couple of days, laughing and wincing all the way.

The thing I find so interesting about what Jessica does is, she takes 'chick lit' or 'chick flicks' and subverts the genre by splicing in Slasher DNA. And, as Stephen Graham Jones famously said about Tastes Like Candy, she doesn't go light on the gore."

There are images in Jessica's books that stand a head above anything I've seen in a Slasher flick in 20 years. Sure, there's also a lot of wedding stuff and fashion stuff in Fatally Yours that I either had to shrug off or look up (I kind of wish I could wear Louboutin combat boots), but that's also part of the fun. 

I'll recommend this one to anyone who loves a great slasher, or anyone who loves a great laugh, or anyone who wants to see what Father of the Bride* would look like if it were remade by Damien Leone.

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* I've never seen Father of the Bride, but I'd definitely watch a remake of it if helmed by Mr. Leone. Just saying. 

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Dreamkid - Daggers

Electric Youth and Pilot Priest - Come True OST

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Beach House - Bloom

The Soft Moon - Exister

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Card:

I felt a pull to my Thoth again, but remember, you can grab Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot HERE.

• I: The Magus

• 7 of Disks: Debauch

• 6 of Disks: Success

This new idea might seem like it falters, but stick with it and something will come of it. Words of encouragement as I continue a fairly productive stint of days working on Shadow Play Book 2. 

Blackbraid III is OUT NOW!!!

 

Blackbraid III, out everywhere today! Psyched for the arrival of my vinyl, which I pre-ordered directly from the band's online shop HERE.

 

Last weekend, while doing some work around the house, I put in my headphones and listened to Blackbraid I and II in succession. This is a band that deserves all the hype; in fact, Blackbraid deserves a lot more hype! There's an evolution going on across these three records that is breathtaking to behold, and you can see how their success funnelled directly into their Art. The cover artwork on III is a contender for cover of the year. Artist Adam Burke absolutely nailed this, and with Adrian Baker's layout, this is something I cannot wait to just sit and stare at while cranking the record. (You can read a bit more about the album and the art HERE)

I had hopes of seeing Blackbraid live, but alas, they're playing Chicago when I'm in LA this October, and they're playing LA when I'm back home in TN, so I'll have to catch them next time. 

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Watch:

Weapons. Holy shit. THIS might actually topple Eddington as my favorite film of the year. Zach Cregger has actually crafted yet another movie that belies all comparison. Weapons is unique. It is intricate and perfectly executed. The storytelling here is just on another level. The characters - of which there are quite a few - are very well-written and expertly developed. As my good friend and cohost on The Horror Vision said last night during our live, spoiler-free reaction on IG, "The characters are rich."

Yes. That is exactly the word.

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Go into this as blind as possible. I will say, another thing that now appears to go hand-in-hand with Cregger's brand is the mystery, so that even though I've seen the initial trailer for this film several times, and have been inundated with a more recent ad while watching The Bear on our HULU (our phone pays for the subscription, so there are ads), I still knew NOTHING about this film. That's a feat. While Blumhouse continues to beat everyone over the head with trailers that show (and ruin) the entire movie, Directors like Mr. Cregger and Oz Perkins have "spoiler-free" built into their brand.

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Playlist:

Opeth - Solitude (Black Sabbath Cover live)

Eric Prydz - Call Me (single)

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

Beastmilk - Climax

Bella Morte - Where Shadows Lie

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (pre-release singles)

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Bruit ≤ - Live on KEXP

Cobalt - Gin

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups - The Watery aspect of Water: Emotion x 2

• Page of Wands - The Earthly aspect of Fire: Earthly expenditures/expression of Will

• Page of Cups - The Earthly aspect of Water: Earthly expenditures/expressions of Emotion

Heavy emotions lead to Earthly concerns diluting the Will. 

Techno Westerns - Loverboy

I rewatched In A Violent Nature last night, strictly because Joe Bob and Darcy hosted it on the previous installment of The Last Drive-In. Not a fan of this flick, but I did come away with this song, so that's cool.

The album this track is featured on shares its name, and while I didn't love it, I found a pretty reliable evocation of a certain kind of Electro-Indie-Pop that was ubiquitous in Los Angeles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and thus, hits a certain nostalgic trigger for me. I'm not talking smack; I would have probably liked this a lot more back then, but my tastes have definitely shifted, and as it stands after a couple of listens, I do dig this, just not enough to really get excited by it. Still, if you dig this track, check out their music for yourself. 

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Watch:

Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian received a trailer last week:

This is another example of a creator who must have a hand in controlling the marketing of his films because, like Barbarian, this gives nothing away. I'm not going to test that theory by watching any subsequent trailers New Line releases after this; Weapons hits theatres on August 8th, and I will be there on opening day. 

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Read:

Over the weekend, I ripped through a re-read of Preston Fassel's brilliant Our Lady of the Inferno. Second time reading this book, and it's an all-time favorite for me. 

The depth of emotion here is incredible. This is a book that can scare you, gross you out, and touch your heart. The imagery is above and beyond as Fassel conjures 42nd Street, New York, in 1983, in a way I cannot even begin to describe. You hear it, you feel it, you smell it. The characters are so well-written and so developed that you feel like you know them - like you have known them your entire life. And the Horror is both breathtaking and heartbreaking in equal measure.

I was lucky enough to grab this one upon original publication by Fangoria, but while that edition is long out of print, there is a new edition available everywhere books are sold. 

I know I say this a lot, and I always mean it when I say it, but I cannot recommend this book enough. While I would definitely classify Our Lady of the Inferno as a "Horror" novel, it is also a literary Horror novel and one that is far too human to be limited by any genre tropes.  

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

The Raveonettes - PE'AHI II

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Turnstile - GLOW ON

Primus - Pork Soda

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Ghost - Skeletá 

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Final Light - Eponymous

Techno Westerns - Lover Boy

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

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Card:

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

• Ace of Cups

• Four of Wands

• Seven of Pentacles

Emotional breakthrough leads to a stable foundation from which to move forward to victory.

Black Gloves & Broken Hearts is finished and is in the hands of my trusted Beta Reader, so I'm really just waiting on the cover art and any cleanup based on early readers' reactions. After that, we'll be looking at setting a release date. Conversely, I've added a chapter to my latest ongoing Nosleep Serial and moved back to Shadow Play Book Two with the intention of stripping it, streamlining it, and finishing it. I toyed with the idea of turning this proposed trilogy into a duology. However, I think I will simply make books two and three shorter than originally expected. There's just too much sprawl, and I think it's that admitting and acknowledging that right there that is the "Emotional Breakthrough" mentioned in the reading. Roping this in can only lead to a stronger foundation and, thus, completion (Victory).

Diabolic Majesty

 

Holy cow - a new Revocation album dropped! Haven't heard the entire thing yet, but a couple songs in, I very much digging Netherheaven, which you can order from Metal Blade Records HERE.

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NCBD:

A big haul this week for NCBD. Let's dive right into it:

Gonna have my hands full with this one for a day or two, but that's some great reading. 

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Watch:

How the hell do you talk about this movie without actually talking about it? The trailer is one of the best I've ever seen, as it shows you so much that wets the Horror Whistle, but tells you absolutely NOTHING about the film, and after seeing this one yesterday, I want to tow the exact same line.

Barbarian's trailer indeed tells you little about the movie. In fact, it actually tells you less than I thought going in. There is so much here, so much that makes it not only my "film-to-beat" for 2022 but also, one of my favorite Horror Flicks in recent years. And make no mistake, this is no "psychological thriller." Nope. This is pure, unadulterated Horror. There are some gnarly ideas and images in here that make for an often revolting watch - in the best possible way, of course. 

 My suggestion - go see it on the big screen if you can. I may be going back for a second time tonight. My only regret will be that I can't go in blind a second time.

 

The fact that this is Writer/Director Zach Cregger's first feature blows me away. Mr. Cregger is now on my "See anything they make" list right next to other indie filmmakers like Ti West and Joe Begos.

 

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Playlist:

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

NIN - Broken EP

NIN - Burn (Single)

NIN - Dead Souls (Single)

NIN - The Downward Spiral

Ministry - Land of Rape and Honey

Idles - NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

The Afghan Whigs - How Do You Burn?

A001 - Nyctophobia EP

Forhist - Eponymous

Revocation - Netherheaven

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Card:

Sometimes you have to be an asshole to get things accomplished. 

Preoccupations - Ricochet

 

Really digging this new track from Preoccupations that not only did Heaven is an Incubator post about recently, but both my good friends Jacob and Mr. Brown sent me last week (or the week before, we are now officially in a blur, ladies and gentlemen). It's been some time since we had new music from these guys, and I'd forgotten just how much I love their Eponymous and New Material Records (not to mention the Viet Cong stuff). 

The new album Arrangements is out September 9th, and you can pre-order it now HERE. I'm currently on a ban from anything pending our move, but that shouldn't hold you back.

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Watch:

I feel like someone sent me something about this one a few months back, as the title rings familiar. After watching this trailer, however, I don't know. The first feature from Writer/Director Zach Cregger, this is new to me:

 

Holy smokes. SOLD. What a fantastic trailer - it gives us so much of the aesthetic but gives NOTHING away (I'm assuming). Bill Skarsgård is beginning to be enough to make me stop and consider anything he's in, so there's that, and the 'tunnels under suburbia' angle is right in my sweet spot, so my arse will be in a seat come 8/31.

 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

The Mars Volta - Blacklight Shine (pre-release single)

The Soft Moon - Him (pre-release single)

Preoccupations - Ricochet (pre-release single)

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - 1957-1972 (Live)

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Card:

Fortify your position. Definitely apt. I'm having massive "is this the right thing?" thoughts as we look at houses.