2018: October 9th: New High on Fire

With all my elation at Windhand's Eternal Return dropping last Friday, I forgot High on Fire's new album Electric Messiah also hit the 'shelves.' After giving it a couple spins I dig it - Matt Pike and crew didn't reinvent their wheel here, but there's some digging around inside the confines of their patented sound that there's some growth here. As usual, it's pummeling and a bit exhaustive. Not a bad thing.

31 Days of Horror continued yesterday with another first timer for me (we opted to save The Convent for tonight):

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species

Species is one of K's favorites. I'd never really had any interest in seeing it until I recently read that the monster was based on an H.R. Giger design - obvious, but I guess I just thought it was a case of Hollywood cribbing the design on the Alien monster. Either way, I enjoyed Species in spite of it being very 90s- everything from the camera work to the overwrought score reeked of X-Files influence. Forest Whittaker overdoes his role as this search-and-destroy team's empath, although I suspect that was the product of direction more than his personal choice. Also, the use of ground fog where there shouldn't be any is very much a trope of the 90s.

Playlist from 10/08:

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Automatic
Corniglia - Eponymous
High on Fire - Electric Messiah
High on Fire - Snakes of the Divine
God is LSD - Spirit of Suicide

I ended up baulking on finishing the second part of the novel last night due to sheer exhaustion. After work was reserved for a big ol' nap! Today's card for the day reflects my adjusted expectations:

Also, there's the balance of contrasts inherent in this card, which ties into the book's attempt to balance YA adventure-horror with a touch of a literary pedigree.

2018: October 8th

I am still very much in love with this Corniglia album. If you dig it too, here's the link to the band's bandcamp.

31 Days of Horror continued last night with the 80s classic Night of the Demons. I still dig this flick, however, Mike Mendez's The Convent is always going to be the better version of this. I know they're not exactly the same set-up wise, and I know NOTD came first and Mendez was influenced by it, but to me, The Convent is one of my favorite movies ever and is close enough that watching NOTD really just makes me want to watch it instead. That said, good viewing showing Demon to K for the first time, and tonight we'll be doing Convent.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-Animator
10/07) Night of the Demons

Playlist from 10/07:

Stellar Corpses - Respect the Dead EP
Windhand - Eternal Return
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Goblin - Dawn of the Dead OST

Card of the day:

Indeed. Second part of the book will be done today. Success!

2018: October 7th: Good Omens Trailer

Looks like they dropped the, "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Anges Nutter, Witch" part of the title, but this looks awesome! I've been waiting for this one for what feels like forever. I remember back in the late 90s when, if I remember correctly, Mr. Brown and I were excited at the rumors of Depp and Robin Williams playing the angel and demon. We didn't get that, but this casting looks great. I mean, David Tennant is becoming one of my favorite actors of late. Actually makes me want to re-watch the Fright Night remake, just to see his character.

31 Days of Horror continued last night with Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator! It'd been years since I last saw this one, and in the interim my experience seeing the musical version - also directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Chris McKenna, who I knew previously from Gordon's King of the Ants - kinda overtook the film as the ultimate version of the story beyond the original source material by Lovecraft, which is very different. Apparently enough time had passed though, because I dug the flick a lot, and there's a ton of extras on the Arrow Blu Ray I recently picked up, so I'll have a good time going through those.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06 Re-Animator

Playlist from yesterday:

Windhand - Eternal Return
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
The Final Cut - Consumed
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Card of the day:

The Airy aspect of Water - combining intellect and emotion in a functional way. This is exactly where I'm at writing, as I'm killing my darlings from a previous version of the novel and streamlining it into a much tighter version of the story. My goal is to have a literate, young adult novel that contains aspects of the adventure genre, as well as the horror and suburban fantasy genres (that second one there is, to my knowledge, a term I coined). And it's coming along nicely as I round the corner on wrapping the middle of three sections, I feel confident and strong on this one in a way I never did before.

2018: October 6th

Woke up with this one in my head this morning. As I've probably said a million times here, Life is Killing Me is my favorite Type O album, so I love every song. There are, however, certain foundation stones of the album for me - I Don't Wanna Be Me, How Could She?, Iydkmigthtky (Gimme That), and Anesthesia. The mortar in between those stones, so to speak, but all of them exceptional if commonly unsung.

31 Days of Horror continued last night with yet another Cronenberg film that I had, incredibly, not seen before. Loved it as an outré filmmakers working inside the studio formula and doing very much his own, unconventional thing with it.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly

Playlist from Friday, October 5th:

Drab Majesty - Careless
Windhand - Eternal Return
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Rolling Blackout CF - Hope Downs
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Automatic

Card of the day:

Always good to see a Seven. While one step out from the harmony of the Six, I feel as though this is an exact analogy for where I am in the final pass at constructing my book. See those six perfectly matched and balanced Wands beneath the Seventh? I'm adding the final pieces gleaned from the breakthrough of many months away from it, respectful not to damage what's already there.

Teaser Trailer for Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys

Courtesy of NYCC. Props to my good friend Chris from DwC and the Thirsty Crows for tipping me to it's release. After watching all I can say is...

I'm in.

As a series, I really liked The Boys at the start, but felt it became a bit blah in the middle. Then, about a year before it's end, Butcher stabbed someone to death for killing something special to him and the book became a juggernaut of awesome until the end. Hoping the show might streamline and smooth over some of the complacent parts.

2018: October 5th - The New Windhand is Out and it's Awesome!

Two full listens this morning on headphones and I'm hooked.

31 Days of Horror continued last night, but I'll tell you right now my definitions of horror are probably the most lenient. I drove up to Santa Monica's Aero Theatre after work and caught one of the satellite Cronenberg double headers Beyondfest has been offering this year. Last night was Crash and Spyder, neither of which I had seen before. I only stayed for Crash, primarily because I'd been up since 4:00 AM and was due to wake up at the same time today, so sticking for Spider would have killed me. Secondly though, Crash had such an immense impact on me, I didn't want to dilute the experience with a second movie, even if it was by the same man.

Crash blew me away. I remember it opened back in 1996 around the same time David Lynch's Lost Highway did. At the time I was completely unfamiliar with Cronenberg though, so despite the premise peaking my curiosity, I passed on seeing it. As the years have gone by and I've begun getting into Cronenberg, this film is always one that eludes my attention.

No more.

Shooting straight up to almost tie with Videodrome as my favorite film by DC, Crash's falls firmly into the Body Horror genre in my book, despite there not being a lot of grotesque imagery. The horror here lies in the mutations of sexuality the characters undergo, their willingness to embrace the strange and outre, and the philosophical ramifications that lie buried so deep beneath the surface of the film that they really only tickle their way out. The film feels very much like a virus once its been ingested, and I'm on a kick to further explore its concepts with more viewings and a go-through with JG Ballard's 1973 novel of the same name. I also absolutely loved Howard Shore's score on this one, in particular this opening track:



And where the hell did Elias Koteas and Deborah Kara Unger go after this film? Talk about fantastic performances.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) ???

Playlist from Thursday, October 4th:

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery
The Misfits - Earth A.D.
The Misfits - Static Age
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man EP
Boy Harsher - Country Girl EP
King Woman - Doubt EP
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Card of the day:

Opposing elements can cause imbalance. Hmm...

Daredevil Season 3 Trailer

Gotta say, I generally don't give a toss about what Marvel does these days, big screen or little screen, but this... THIS gave me chills. Multiple times. And my money is on fake DD being Bullseye.

Also, what a class act, dropping the trailer so close to the release (October 19th) we hardly have any time to wait at all? Super cool Marvel.

2018: October 4th

K and I continued our 31 days of Horror last night. In spite of a late start, or rather because of it, we went with a shorter flick, specifically Stuart Gordon's entry into the Masters of Horror library. As an adaptation and modernization of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witchhouse, Gordon's piece works pretty well. It's been a minute since I read the story - going to try and remedy that this weekend - but from what I remember of it Gordon does a good job. Brown Jenkins, in particular, is pretty creepy. And kudos for going all the way with the ending.



I've been in a Gordon mood lately. Chomping at the bit to re-watch Dagon, as it's my favorite by him and I haven't seen it since the big screen at the Warner Grand back at either 2011 or 2012's H.P. Lovecraft fest. Also, ordered Arrow Film's Re-animator, a film I've only seen once and a long time ago. Back also around 2011/2012 I saw Gordon's musical stage adaptation of Re-animator at the Steve Allen Theatre, and I loved it so much in that form I've been afraid the film just won't hold up since. Pretty sure that's unfounded, and Arrow's release is packed with extras, so I pulled the trigger on finally adding that to the collection.

Okay, so that puts our 31 Days of Horror list at:

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House

Playlist from 10/03:

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Miranda Sex Garden - Carnival of Souls
The Soft Moon - Eponymous
The Soft Moon - Criminal
White Lung - Sorry
Daughters - Satan in Wait (single)
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always

Card of the day:

The Twos are the pure breakthrough of the Ace into the first stage of practice.

The Ocean Release Another New Track!

I'm still debating on whether or not I'm going to listen to this one before the album comes out, but that's no reason not to share it! These guys are such a great band, but I feel like not everyone that would like them knows about them. Hopefully that changes.

Pre-order Here for a November 2nd release!

2018: October 3rd

Love this song! I love all tracks by Type O, especially from this album, but this is one of the standouts. Also a great example of why they were so great: interesting, non-traditional song structure,  those group vocal accents that give everything a lush sense of good-natured hostility, fantastic two-person vocal melodies, and a sense of bloody humor for Christ's sake, just to name a few elements on display here that I love. No October would be complete without Type O Negative.

I decided to do the 31 Days of Horror movie thing. Not really a challenge, but a commitment for sure. Last night we opened Shudder only to find they'd added a bunch of Hitchcock! Super cool. First up from these was Rope, the adaptation of the play, starring Farley Granger, John Dall, and of course, the inimitable James Stewart. It had been quite some time since I'd watched this one, and while I remembered the big picture, a lot of the nuance - which is where all the fun lies - played for me like a first viewing.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope

What will tonight's movie be? Not sure yet. I set a few DVDs out though, fodder for the coming evenings:

And there's a hell of a lot more than that. October is just getting started!


Playlist from October 2nd:

Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Fields of Nephilim - Dawnrazor
Zombi - Spirit Animal
Zombi - Shape Shift
Sleep - The Science
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST

Card of the day:

Seeking completion and fulfillment: And I continue to work on finishing my book!

2018: October 2nd

Hallelujah, it's October! Yeah, I know yesterday was the first, but it took me a day to realize we've finally arrived. The year is on its way out starting now, the seasons will change (well, not really for those of us who live in LaLaLand), and everything just gets better. Darker. Cooler. What you can expect to hear a lot of on this page in the coming 30 days?

Type O Negative
Bauhaus
Miranda Sex Garden
Fields of Nephilim
Trust Obey
The Final Cut
Ain Soph
More Sisters of Mercy and I'm certain I'm forgetting some major stuff. But I like surprises, so that's good!

I watched The Summer of 84 yesterday, the new film by the directors of the much talked about Turbo Kid, which I still need to see. 84 was derivative as all hell - think heavy Stranger Things vibe mixed with The Burbs - but it was a really fun, well-made flick that scratched my 80s nostalgia itch (which I'm thinking might disappear at some point if there's too much of this kind of thing). And I LOVED the ending. Recommended if you're not looking for something new but something engaging and fun:



NCBD tomorrow and it's a big one:

A Walk Through Hell -  The only book I currently think about all month long between issues!

Batman/The Maxx Arkham Dreams - my most eagerly anticipated book in ages!

 Die! Die! Die! #3 will be the determining issue as to whether or not I continue to read this one.

Super psyched for my friend DJ Kirkbride's new book, Errand Boys!

No, that's not a Walking Dead one-off featuring Princess, that's the Bill Sienkiewicz alternate cover!

Playlist from Monday, October 1st:

Pale Sketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Nothing - Dance on the Blacktop
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Behind the Music
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
The Ocean - Fluxion
Perturbator - Terror 404

Card of the day:

The Will to drive, to conquer, to complete. That's what I'm channeling today, as I'll hit my writing time hard, nearing the end of the layout of the chapters for my newest project, the final re-vamp of my now 6 years in the making novel ShadowPlay Book One: Kim & Jessie.

2018: October 1st

Justin K. Broadrick + Nothing + Prurient? Wow. I didn't know this existed until five minutes ago. What an awesome collaboration! And Somersault, off Nothing's 2014 record Guilty of Everything, is one of my favorite tracks by the band. This really blows it up to a massive size.

The website for the new podcast I've undertaken, TheHorrorVision.com had a bit of a delay, but should be up by mid-week, along with the first episode.


Playlist from Sunday, 9/30:
Etta James - The Second Time Around
Chuck Berry - Berry on Top
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Yob - Ablaze (Single track)
White Lung - Eponymous
Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness
Sunn O))) - Kanon
Zombi - Shape Shift

Card of the day:

This again. Loud and clear. Yesterday's writing was the first in a few days, and it was pretty disappointing. Basically interpreting a second day of the five of Cups as another day of breaking rocks, which means Wednesday should be good.

2018: September 30th

One of the trailers that has been recurring at Beyondfest. Looks great. Free Screening at the Egyptian later this week, but it's a school day and a late show. Debating...

I can never fit enough Beyondfest in. I cherish everything I do get to attend, but I'm always left wanting more. Last night was brilliant: a pristine 35mm print of Dead Ringers, followed by Mick Garris interviewing Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore. The interview was recorded for later airing on Garris's podcast Post Mortem. The conversation covered everything - from Dead Ringers to The Fly, to Shore's work on Silence of the Lambs and Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptations, to Cronenberg's role in Clive Barker's Nightbreed to his early short films Stereo and Crimes of the Future.

And everything in between.

What can top that? Well, there's a few more showings this year I may try and attend, Boat being one of them. Some of the others:







And one Cronenberg double feature remaining:





Playlist from yesterday was non-existent.

Card of the day:

2018: September 29th - Hold The Dark

Hold the Dark is exceptional; in my mind this is Saulnier's first masterpiece. Nothing against his other films, but this is just... a level beyond. I've written the inaugural installment of my new column on Joup, The Horror Vision, about the film. Read it HERE.

But wait, The Horror Vision is not only a column on Joup. In fact, the column is just a tributary to a much greater endeavor! In just one day (if all goes well with backend website design) my friends Ray, Anthony, Chris and I will be unveiling the newest podcast in the DwC catalogue: The Horror Vision. Here's a promo clip we threw together:



That beautiful logo is courtesy of Chris Saunders and the theme music is by me!

Tonight! More Beyondfest 2018 as K and I head into Hollywood to see Dead Ringers on the big screen, with director David Cronenberg in attendance to discuss the film. Can. Not. Wait.

Playlist from Friday, 9/28:

Mayhem - Deathcrush EP
Broadcast - Tender Buttons
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
Waveshaper - Station Nova
Mad Love - White With Foam

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "If we struggle against the seasons, the ebb and flow of life, we will fall. However, when you turn (Change) with that flow, you will reach a stationary peace from which your actions can harmonize with the power of Life's turning wheel."

How does that apply to me today? That's kind of the greatness of the card, isn't it? A broad stroke reminder to 'roll with the punches.' I'll be keeping that under advisement.

2018: September 28th - More New Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats

Really can't wait for this record.

Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos is excellent. The film goes out of its way to humanize Euronymous, played by Rory Caulkin, and conversely sets Varg up to look pretty much like a bit of a wallflower. The cinematography is gorgeous - especially the church burning scenes - and the murder scenes are brutal. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre - which I'm on the fence with as far as the old, second wave stuff - or anyone fascinated by sociological oddities.

Being that it's Beyondfest time, I've been reflecting on some of the other films I've seen there over the last few years. At the same time, while catching up on the always brilliant Shock Waves podcast, Episode 112 has Gigi Guerrero as a guest. I didn't realize who she was until the hosts brought up her short film El Gigante, which I saw a few years ago at Beyondfest and LOVED, kind of a Luchadore-meets-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre hybrid. Here's the trailer:



Ms. Guerrero's production company El Luchagore's website is chock full of awesome content, and she says they are still in the early stages of making a full length out of the short. Also, there's a comic!

Playlist from 9/27:

Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Chris Connelly - The Tide Stripped Bare
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le Mani Destre Recise degli ultimi Uomini

Card of the day:

With this many recurrences of late, it's face value time: what am I being foolish about?