Purple Hill Witch

 

Really digging Purple Hill Witch, an awesome Stoner/Doom band from Oslo, Norway, who recently signed to Totem Cat Records, home of so many other fantastic bands! As I get to know the back catalogue, I'm following these guys on IG and salivating at the prospect of the new record!

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Rob Zombie's 31 is a polarizing film, to say the least. Even in my own personal conversation about Horror, you know, the one flowing in my head pretty much ALL THE TIME, I have mixed opinions. It starts strong with Doomhead, wears on my nerves with its "King Dong" bag of dick and fuck jokes as we meet the cast, and then really comes up strong again when we get going on the plot. Yet, all that time spent annoying me with character "development" doesn't make me dislike the protagonists at all. What they go through saves them for me.

By the end, I am always intoxicated by 31, and it's often difficult to find something to watch afterward (unless I'm doing House of 1000 Corpses or Devil's Rejects). 

---

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

19) The House of the Devil - Last Drive-in Presentation (original air date April 26, 2019)

20) The Woods

21) Rob Zombie's 31

---

---

---

Read:

The pre-order went up for the next Laird Barron release on Bad Hand Books. HERE's the link and the solicitation below this amazing cover art by Samuel Araya. 

"Barron returns to Bad Hand Books with an all-new novella in his famed Antiquity setting. (Pretty) Red Nails features familiar hero Isaiah Coleridge—but he’s not at all as we remember him. This is Coleridge with a dark-fantasy twist. A tall, rangy mercenary armed with a deadly iron spear, Coleridge travels the benighted land astride a nameless piebald stallion while the grinning moon watches from above like a patient carrion bird. Alongside Lionel Robard and a battle-scarred war dog, Minerva, Coleridge faces off against a mad wizard and the horrifying Pale Ones on a quest to find the fabled city of Ur. For love. For lust. For pretty red nails."

---

---

---

Playlist:

Drug Church - PRUDE

Chat Pile - Cool World

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights

Misfits - Static Age

Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste

Purple Hill Witch - Eponymous

---

---

---

Card:

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

• King of Pentacles

• Ace of Swords

• I: The Magician

The King (Prince) of Disks can be a bit of a cunt for matters of Earthly stability. He's a shake-up, a corporate higher-up who stops in to ensure things are running smoothly and routinely finds issues. That said, that kind of pragmatic assessment can lead to enlightenment and enhanced prowess. 

Drug Church - Demolition Man

 

BIG thanks to Mr. Brown, who clued me into the fact that comic writer Patrick Kindlon's band Drug Church has a new record out! Kindlon is kind of the pinnacle of the evolution of Punk Rock to me at the moment: he writes wonderfully subversive and thought-provoking comics, and he sings in an awesome band that has a social awareness that reminds me a bit of Fugazi, although turned somewhat inward. Really great stuff.

You can order the record HERE.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Not much to say about my viewing over the weekend. Rewatching the original Terrifier, I'm merely reminded how great the second and third entries are with an actual plot, although Leone's FX work is still great (although subdued by lack of budget), and it's interesting to see the Victoria character's origin again, given what she's become. That was Friday night; Saturday was Ti West's The Houe of the Devil with Joe Bob from The Last Drive-In episode aired during the first season of the show, back in 2019. House is normally a film I prefer to watch uninterrupted, but this is my second viewing in the last few months (I watched it when Maxxxine hit theatres, too), and I'd never seen Joe Bob 'do' the film, so it was time. Very cool factoids throughout.

Last night, I re-watched Lucky McKee's The Woods. This was his 2006 follow-up to May. May is one of my all-time favorite films. The Woods is... not a bad film by any means. However, something about it feels very hollow to me. I don't remember how I felt about this one when I first saw it upon the initial DVD release, but it definitely didn't move the needle with me this time. 

I feel like I am running out of time this month. There's been a couple not-so-great viewings, and there's a ton of stuff I want to get to. Might have to organize the remainder of my viewings. 

---

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

19) The House of the Devil - Last Drive-in Presentation (original air date April 26, 2019)

20) The Woods

---

---

---

Listen:

My friend Justin interviewed Chris Connelly on the latest episode of his YouTube show, Trailer Punk Podcast. Check it out!

Listening to this, I'm reminded I've still never tracked down a copy of Connelly's 2010 novel Ed Royal, and now I realize he has others! No excuses... 

---

---

---

Playlist:

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä 

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Perturbator - Nocturne City EP

The Body and Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven

Various - Halloween Spotify Playlist

Orville Peck - Pony

Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula

---

---

---

Cold Cave - Octavia

 

The final song on this year's Passion Depression, released back in March. I'm really just getting around to this one now. For whatever reason, none of Cold Cave's albums live up to the promise set by the first one I really heard, 2011's Cherish the Light Years, but this album's pretty great, and this final track is my favorite on it. You can head over to CC's Bandcamp HERE and take your pick. 

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

      

---

---

---

Watch:

Okay. Bloody Disgusting posted the trailer for Beyond the Chamber of Terror a few days ago, and it looks like it will either be a gloriously goofy good time or unwatchable.

I guess the proof, as always, will be in the pudding.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Skinny Puppy - VIVI Sect VI

Human Impact - Gone Dark

The Cure - A Fragile Thing (single)

Cold Cave - Passion Depression

Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years

---

---

---

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather Always Makes Me SMILE, Too

 

Ritual Howl's album Turkish Leather was released ten years ago on September 30th! Holy smokes. If you're not familiar, check out their discography on Bandcamp. Easily one of my favorite discoveries from the last ten years, for sure.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Last night K and I hit the Regal for Parker Finn's Smile 2. I'm not going to post a trailer because last week, before Terrifier 3, I noticed there was a HUGE spoiler image sandwiched in the quick succession of scenes they splice together, and that pissed me off.

That's not Finn's fault. I rewatched the first Smile Wednesday night, and I have to say, third viewing - first at home - Smile not only held up, but I now think it's one of the scariest flicks in recent memory. Sosie Bacon's physical acting - her posture, inflections and facial tics totally sell her anxiety as she spirals, a descent made all the worse by the fact that the movie begins with her patient demonstrating the exact blueprint for what she's about to go through. 

Chills!

So how does the sequel hold up? Well, our theatrical experience ranks as the worst I've had in years, but that's definitely not the film's fault. Blame instead the groups of high school students who walked in and out of the theatre on almost constant rotations. I used to be the guy who would stand up and tell people to shut the fuck up when they were talking during a movie, but nearly coming to blows during James Bond: Skyfall (2012?) delivered the epiphany that I had become part of the disturbance. The theatre is my church, and I've learned to grin and bear it. It's not nearly as hard now that I rarely smoke before a theatrical screening. I have a much easier time letting periphery noise go when I'm not hyper-focused. Also, these kids weren't talking so much as just walking in and out of the theatre, so what do you say, anyway?

Back to the actual movie. Smile 2 is fantastic; it's not as good as the original, but that's just my opinion. My Horror Vision co-host Missi felt this one matched the first film. One thing's for sure - Parker Finn is a Director I will follow from here out. He used the considerably bigger budget for this sequel to really expand his idea in a way that transcends the genre completely and sets up the next movie with a scale that makes me extremely excited.

In a nutshell, it might not make my top ten of the year - a hard thing to do in 2024 from the sheer volume of awesome films released so far this year - but it's fantastic, moves the series forward in a brilliant and exciting way, and should definitely be seen in a theatre. Just try to get a screening where the brats are sure to still be in school. 

---

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

---

---

---

Read:

I finished my third re-read of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station yesterday. Totally blown away again!

Now, onto Laird Barron's Not A Speck of Light, which I received from Bad Hand Books a week or so ago and have been chomping at the bit to read. I'm four stories in and it's just so wonderful to have new stories by one of your favorite authors. Barron's prose wraps around my brain like a massive alien wyrm slowly strangling the light from the sky. 

 

The plan is to read a couple of short stories in this new collection and then start Ivy Tholen's latest, Mother Dear, which I am also dying to tear into!

---

---

---

Playlist:

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather

Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Sandrider - Godhead

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Beastmilk - Climax

Skinny Puppy - Remission

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

---

---

---

Card:

Today's Card is IV: The Emperor.

"The Rules that Govern All Life."

That's how my entry in the Grimoire begins. Also, it should be mentioned that this is obviously a very Martial card; Crowly writes about this tying into the card as the representation of the physical embodiment of authority. He also drops this little gem:

"... Aires means Ram. At his (the Emperor's) feet, couchant, is the Lamb and Flag, to confirm this attribution on the lower pane; for the ram, by nature, is a wild and courageous animal, lonely in lonely places, whereas when tamed and made to lie down in green pasture, nothing is left but the docile, cowardly, gregarious and succulent beast. This is the theory of government."

No wonder my friends and I tend to regard this card suspiciously! One of the interpretations I lean toward with The Emperor is "It will be decided for you," which sounds a bit chilling now, when juxtaposed with the above passage from The Book of Thoth. Anyway you cut it, the fourth Atu is not a great card to see in many respects, unless of course, you need a third party to get something done for you. 

New Music from Chelsea Wolfe!

New music from Chelsea Wolfe, and it reminds me that I sort of forgot about She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, released a few months ago. This woman is such a prolific artist; very inspiring. You can pre-order the new E.P. HERE.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Woke up super early yesterday and caught Nico van den Brink's 2022 film Moloch from the beginning on Shudder TV. Solid modern Folk Horror flick from XYZ Films. Here's a trailer that's not too revealing:

---

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77, DVD)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

---

---

---

NCBD:

Short list this week, and two of these books may be delayed. Let's take a look:

How many times have issues of The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution been delayed? Hell, I'm not even sure anymore. I love this world and this book, so I'll take it when they give it, and honestly, a production on this level is worth the wait. 

Opting for the "B" cover on this final issue of Destro. The Energon Universe party is kind of over; I mean, it's still great, but as Mike Shinabargar and I have discussed on Drinking with Comics quite a bit the last few months, that initial excitement of introducing G.I. Joe into the mix crested with the Cobra Commander and Duke mini-series. Destro has been great, but with everything winding down toward one monthly book, well, something feels flattened.

There's really no way to even begin to discuss this book in any small way. Department of Truth is so much more effective a series read in trade; however, after catching up on the series with the first four volumes, there's just no way I can wait for it to be collected. 

Or can I?

This is the one I am most excited about this week, and it's also the one I've heard has been pushed back. DC, please get this one out before Halloween! Maybe it's Shinabargar's influence, but I've been digging some of these one-off Bat-books lately, and at a tight, three-issue duration, this Batman fights a Werewolf looks pretty rad.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Barry Adamson - Cut to Black

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

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

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Walter Rizati - House By the Cemetery OST

Goblin - Suspiria OST

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

---

---

---

Card:

Today's card is V: The Hierophant.

The initial notes I made for this card, long ago when I began the Grimoire, reads: "Something more (Divine???) that guides life along its course." 

The Prime Mover. This does not have to be a religious interpretation—mine certainly isn't—but it can be. In reality, this can be any "higher" power imparting knowledge, even if it's just someone smarter or more versed than you. 

Crowley floods the card with extra meaning. The bull, the elephants, Horus. It all boils down to the ultimate template for the Magickal working: United the microcosm with the macrocosm, itself a reference to our study and how it seeks to draw upon the aforementioned Prime Mover.  

I LOVE my Anchor Bay DVD copy of Dario Argento's 1977 Suspiria. LOVE it. One of the awesome features is the third disc is the Score by Goblin. Still reeling from rewatching the film this p However, upon rewatching the film for probably the first time in five years (most previous time before was the 4K restoration's premiere on the big screen at the Egyptian Theatre for Beyondfest, complete with Mr. Argento present to discuss the film!), I realized that, like many DVDs, the picture leaves quite a bit to be desired. 

So, I'm finally going to upgrade, and after consulting my Horror Vision cohosts, I've decided the only place to go is Synapse Films.

Although no longer available on the Synapse website, this one is currently available for a cool $25 on Amazon. This is the one my compatriots recommended, and it also has high marks on Blu-Ray.com (Blu-Ray picture and sound review HERE)

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Yesterday evening, I watched Daddy's Head, the new film by Writer/Director/Composer/Editor Ben Barfoot. This hit Shudder last Friday. It's an excellent piece of moody, haunting filmmaking and a strong recommendation, especially for fans of The Lodge, Goodnight Mommy, or Damien McCarthy's work. This is nowhere near as weird as McCarthy's work; however, there's a restrained balance employed in Daddy's Head that really strengthens the film and reminds me a lot of Oddity, in particular.

I'll also add that this film would make the perfect "Yang" to The Babadook's "Ying" in a Grief Haunting double feature. It's kind of the polar opposite of Jennifer Kent's film.

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head/Poltergeist II*

---

* First time watch. I was right to avoid the Poltergeist sequels all these years. Awful.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Godflesh - Us and Them

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Le Matos - Summer of '84 OST

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)

---

---

---

New Music from Jerry Cantrell!!!

 

The second single from the upcoming album I Want Blood, out next Friday, October 18th. Pre-order HERE.

 

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Last night, K and I watched Anouk Whissell, RKSS, François Simard, and Yoann-Karl Whissell's Summer of 84 for the umpteenth time. This has emerged as one of my favorite films over the last couple years. It hits EVERY TIME. At first, I dismissed this as capitalizing on Stranger Things' popularity; however, it quickly became apparent that this was not the case. In the same way that Twin Peaks adopts the veneer of the TV night-time soap opera to subvert the genre, Summer of 84 does the same to the "kids on bikes" aesthetic popularized by Stranger Things.*

Summer of 84's ending is, in my opinion, one of the greatest in recent memory.

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

---

* Yes, technically Kids on Bikes was invented and popularized in the 80s. By NO means am I suggesting ST invented it. I'm 48 - I grew up during the 80s. However, it didn't become an acknowledged "genre" - for better or worse - until later, and not a checklist-ready template until after ST.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

---

---

---

Card:

Taking a break from the single card studies for a pull from Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

What's it say that the first card I lay down has my new friend here on it? 

• IV: The Emperor

• King of Wands

• XIII: Death

Action. Drive. Change. 

Dreamkid - Chrissy

 

Back in 2022 my good friend and co-host on The Horror Vision Ray turned me on to Dreamkid's eponymous album. I liked it, but this guy doubles down on the '80s stuff a couple years after a lot of other people already resurrected that vibe and ran it into the ground, so while I dug the record to a degree, there remained a distance with it for me. I listened to it off and on for a while, then forgot about it. 

I Went to see Terrifier 3 this evening. Sold out show. Every seat taken. As I walked up to the ticket taker, there was a man dressed as Art - no mask - and his daughter dressed as the child demon from part 2 waiting to have their tickets scanned. They looked awesome! I mean, I don't know if I should be watching these, let alone a girl who probably wasn't more than 8 years old, but it is what it is and we like what we like. It's not that much different than the shit we watched at that age. 

Except... maybe it is. The practical FX here are out of this world, but the cruel depravity of these flicks gives me a bit of pause, even if I've really enjoyed seeing these last two on the big screen. In the theatre, Terrifier 2 and 3 have been some of the most immersive films I've seen in ages. There's the gore, but there's also some incredible sound design. It's as good as the practical FX, in my opinion. Plus, the colors, locations, clothes, props, and music. Paul Wiley's score is fantastic. Sick and dreamy. It all works together to make a super fun watch - even if it also kind of skeeves me out.

Dreamkid's "Chrissy" is sort of the theme of T3, and it sounded amazing on the big screen. Still not super sold on the overall sound - it's good, just a bit tough to get past the affectations for someone who grew up in that era. But again, we like what we like and I'm psyched he got his stuff in such a huge movie.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Well, I pretty much said everything I wanted to about last night's viewing up above, so let's just log the list and move on.

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

---

---

---

NCBD:

Man, I've been so hyped on 31 Days of Halloween that I forgot to post my comic pull yesterday. Better late than never. 

I forgot to put this one on my pull last month, so I had to have the guys order me a copy. That's fixed now; I Love these books that Lemire writes and illustrates; they have their own style and it's unlike any other. 

After the tease at the end of the last issue, I was just here for Cobra Commander (well, I was here because I read the first four issues). I was not disappointed. 

Another super solid triptych of Black Suit-era Spider-Man stories. Love it, and the editorial staff really seem to know how to choose artists whose style works super well with the color format. 

Netho Diaz, in particular, blew me away.

New arc and it's Starscream's origin? His real name is what now? This was a super cool issue. Lots of early Cybertron stuff AND a HISS tank? Oh man, we're starting to really cross the streams now...

---

---

---

Playlist:

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

The Final Cut - Consumed

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park

Baroness - Stone

The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us

The Cramps - A Date with Elvis

Orville Peck - Pony

Various - Lost Highway OST

Boy Harsher - Careful

Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)

Dreamkid - Daggers

Dance with the Dead - Neon Cross (single)

Dance with the Dead - The Shape

The Veils - The Ladder (pre-release single)

---

---

---

Card:

Today's card is XIX - The Sun:

This is what I love about Aleister Crowley. From The Book of Thoth:

"This is one of the simplest of the cards; it represents Heru-ra-ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical."

Simplest? Oh, of course! Heru-ra-ha. Yeah. Easy.

This is a card of epiphany. Rejoice! The answers you seek have arrived. Of course, that can also bring with it unwanted knowledge. So the dance we see is one of balance, a theme much more common in the cards than I previously realized. 

We Dream As We Live Alone

 

It's definitely sacrilege to some, but I much prefer the versions of Gang of Four's classic selection of tunes that appear on 2005's Return The Gift LP to the original versions. I have read that members of Gang of Four were never happy with the early recordings, and I, for one, agree. Entertainment! sounds flat AF compared to these updated recordings, and "I Love a Man in Uniform" - easily my favorite song by the band - well, there's just no comparison at all. Same here. 

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

---

---

---

Watch:

Unrelated to Halloween (perhaps), K and I went with my Father to see Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux last night. Three stars and a heart on Letterbxd (review HERE); this doesn't deserve the scorn it's getting. That said, I LOVE the first Joker film, and feel giving this one three stars is enough of a statement as to my disappointment. It's not horrible, I don't even know if it's bad, but it's nowhere near what the original was. Also, this just doesn't need to exist. We were at a free screening of the first film in December 2019 at the Aero in L.A. This was part of Beyondfest's year-round programming, and Director Todd Phillips came out after the film for a discussion and a Q&A. It was at this event that Phillips told the crowd that while WB had been trying to entice him to make a sequel, he wasn't going to. 

I bring this up because I'm pretty sure everyone involved, Phillips himself, set out to make sure there would not be a third. Again, it's not a bad film, but the prize here is, of course, Joaquin Phoenix and the movie makes no bones about not having much to say aside from presenting a platform for him to blow our minds with his performance. Also, Lady Gaga is fantastic. Hell, everyone is fantastic. It just didn't need to happen.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Various - Lost Highway OST

The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja (pre-release single)

Walter Rizzatti - The House By The Cemetery OST

Tones on Tail - Everything!

Fields of the Nephilim - Dawn Razor

Gang of Four - Return the Gift

The Trapezoid & Six Ex - Cannibal Children of the West (single)

Underworld - RiverRun Project

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

---

---

---

Card:

Today's card is the Seven of Wands - Valour

The Seven that, in my mind at least, lines up perfectly with its associated place on the Tree of Life, the Seventh Sephiroth, Netzach.

Netzach is Victory, and while valour is a different word, the two are linked. The general definition of Valour is "Great Courage in the face of danger, especially in battle," and what is life if not a battle? That might not have been true for the first twenty-five or so years of my life, but it's definitely become increasingly true over the subsequent twenty-three. 

So the Seven of Wands is courage to use the Will in the face of battle. Whether that's the battle to change your life on a micro or macro level or perhaps just to get out of bed in the morning, it suggests you can do it. You WILL do it.

Human Impact - Lost All Trust

 

The final song on Human Impact's new album Gone Dark, which dropped this past Friday, October 4th. Fantastic record and the final two tracks really seal the deal. I knew this was former Unsane guitarist/vocalist Chris Spencer's band. However, I did not realize that the other members hail from equally awesome groups, with Cop Shoot Cop's Jim Coleman on Electronics, Daughters' drummer Jon Syverson and Eric Cooper from Made Out of Babies. Syverson and Cooper replaced Drummer Phil Puleo and bassist Chris Pravdica, both of whom previously played with Swans.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Holy cow. What. A. Fucking. BANGER!

I don't know what to say other than what I always say: I went in 100% blind, you should too!!!

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

---

---

---

Read:

I pulled out some of my old issues of Craig Miller and John Thorne's Wrapped in Plastic to prep for a new episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror, where we're going to deep-dive David Lynch's Lost Highway. 

If you don't know, Wrapped in Plastic was a bi-monthly magazine published by Win-Mill Productions, which also published Spectrum magazine. WIP was published for 13 years, from 1992 - 2005. I came into it around issue 17 in 1995. This was pre-internet for me, and I no longer even remember how I became aware of the publication, although smart money is on Amazing Fantasy Books & Comics - still my Chicagoland shop of choice - as I remember them having it on their shelves, and '95 would have been about the time I began frequenting A-F every week. Issues 28 and 29 hit hot on the heels of Lost Highway's theatrical release, and I probably read these issues half a dozen times each. My idea in pulling them out was to supplement this next viewing with some outside analysis, and I have to say, it added a lot.

Incidentally, WIP went digital a few years ago, and you can now buy a digital bundle on their website HERE.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Moon Wizard - Sirens 

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

The Mystery Lights - Purgatory

Human Impact - Gone Dark

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

Ministry - Hopium for the Masses

System Of A Down - Eponymous

The Mysterines - Afraid of Tomorrows

Various - Lost Highway OST

Wilco - A Ghost is Born

Iggy Pop & James Williamson - Kill City

Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste

---

---

---

Card:

My card today for exploration today is 7 of Cups - Debauch:

I think I've found a better way to do these research entries. I've been treating them like a Pull, in other words random. Here now, though, I think grouping them from here out might be better. I didn't pull this card from the deck today, I specifically chose it to follow the 7 of Swords.

From Crowly's Book of Thoth: "The Seven of Cups... its mode is poison, its goal madness. It represents the delusion of Delirium Tremems and drug addiction." False pleasure.

New Music from The Horrors!

 

From the forthcoming album Night Life, out March 21st. Pre-order HERE. Been a minute since I caught up with The Horrors. In that time, according to this video, the singer turned into Alice Cooper. Pretty cool, just like the song.

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

I woke up while it was still dark Wednesday morning. Couldn't fall back asleep, so I do what I always do in that situation - headed up into my office/nerd dungeon, flipped out the sofa bed and fired up Shudder TV. I can usually find something I've seen and then I just pass back out. At that time, , however, there wasn't really anything on Shudder TV, and I saw they'd added a metric shit-ton of flicks for October, so I chose The Houses October Built. Not the two made in 2014/2016. No, this is the original low-budget mockumentary-found footage film from 2011 that scored enough attention to get the filmmakers the dough to make those other flicks. I knew nothing about this franchise - I've never seen any of them. 

Man, I don't know if it was going in with low expectations or the middle-of-the-night thing, but this really stayed with me. There are those who will bemoan the ending, and yeah, there could have been more. However, I dug it. Reminded me of the end of the original Blair Witch Project, which is a film I like, so that's a good thing.

Also, got to see the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the big screen as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration. How awesome is that?

This flick is still, fifty years after its release and twenty-something years after my first viewing, completely unhinged, frightening, and, still feels dangerous. There are not many films that I'll watch that I can say that about. William Lustig's Maniac springs to mind. And honestly, that's one of the things I've grown to appreciate about Damien Leone's Terrifier series - the only modern films that don't cross my major lines but come close enough to remind me of that dangerous, transgressive feeling films like Maniac and TCM inspire in me (to this day).

Last night, I watched Loop Track on Shudder. This was one I saw added a few weeks back, but the name is off-putting, to say the least. Turns out, I really liked this one. 

I'd post the trailer, but after watching it just now, it gives away too much. I went in knowing fuck all, and I would suggest others do the same. Really tense psychological thriller that becomes something completely different in the third act and still manages to be fun. 

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

---

---

---

Playlist:

Beastmilk - Climax

Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim

Gwar - Scumdogs of the Universe

Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST

Bauhaus - Gotham Live

Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Hellbender - Side A

Misfits - Collection One

Miranda Sex Garden - Carnival of Souls

George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers - Greatest Hits

Deftones - B-Sides & Rarities

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

---

---

---

Card:

Today's card: 7 of Swords - Futility:

Sevens line up with Netzach on the Sephirotic Tree of Life, and thus, my initial reading always entails Victory. That said, one of my big take-aways from Crowley's The Book of Thoth is, "This card... suggests the policy of appeasement." In other words, compromise. So this is a Victory by compromise, which might not really feel like a Victory at all. 

New Music From A Place To Bury Strangers

 

From Synthesizer, out digitally this Friday, 10/04, with the vinyl to follow on 10/27. You can pre-order the standard album HERE or the insane edition that has a build-your-own synthesizer as the cover direct from Oliver Ackerman's Death By Audio HERE. They even have a test video demonstrating the synthesizer.

   

I'm probably not springing for this, but hot damn, I am tempted.

 

---

---

---

NCBD:

Really cool pull this week. 

Issue three. This one is taking a bit to get rolling, but tension is beginning to build. 

My money's on an insane body count for the final issue of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' Get Fury. Look at that cover!

One more issue after this one. Better to leave us wanting more than to over stay your welcome, but man, it's going to suck seeing this one go.

Something new from Brian Azzarello and Vanesa R. Del Rey. I'm looking forward to giving this one a shot. From the solicitation by way of League of Comic Geeks:

"In nature there are gods older than the devil... Nothing can prepare you for what's coming in this violent, electrifying descent into this bloody, black metal-infused revenge saga. Val, an American metalhead attending a festival in Oslo, begins her penumbrous pilgrimage into the vast depths of vengeance. After her victimization at the hands of a charismatically vile local band, the Old Gods of Norse Mythology guide her along her path in the name of women everywhere."

---

---

---

31 Days of Halloween:

Regal has partnered with A24 during the month of October for "Eerie Series," a weekly program of A24 films that pair nicely with the season. Last night, I caught Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of A Sacred Deer. This was my second time seeing the film, first time on a big screen. 

I haven't seen all this man's films, but I can pretty much guarantee this is always going to be my favorite. It has such a tense, unyielding eye. The camera moves almost all the time; shots start close and slowly zoom out or start afield and slowly crop in. There's such an ominous feeling of dread, and everyone acts slightly out of whack. It all adds up to an offputting, sometimes hysterical experience in trauma voyeurism, and I love it. 

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

---

---

---

Playlist:

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies EP

Dead Man's Bones - Eponymous

Misfits - Static Age

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Flipper - Album - Generic Flipper

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Beastmilk - Climax

---

---

---

Card:

Today's card is the 5 of Disks - Worry in the Thoth deck:

Fives represent complications or imbalance; the perfection of the fours shivers with an added element - change is constant, nothing coasts for very long. This creates worry in some, however, this is down to how we look at change. Fives tell us to be ready, roll with the punches, adapt and thrive. Applied to Disks, the change we can expect is usually in terms of monetary or Earthly matters. 

The Cramps Live, 1986

 

The Cramps, live in 1986. One of my greatest musical regrets is not seeing these guys live. Goddamn.

Posted to YouTube by Travisbickle1963. Check out their channel HERE - LOTS of awesome stuff.

---

---

---

Watch:

Robert Eggers' Nosferatu gets a trailer (that I'm not watching yet, as this will likely be inescapable in the theatres for the next three months):

Curiosity is driving me mad, but I'm going to attempt to stick to my guns here. I'm really looking forward to this one; I loved The Northman, The Lighthouse and The Witch, and what little imagery we've seen of this remake so far has done nothing to convince me I won't love this as well. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather

Various - Rocktober Blood OST

The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Ganser - Odd Talk

White Hex - Gold Nights

---

---

---

Alice in Chains - Sweet Leap Live 1991

 

Discovered this randomly yesterday. Badass - to hear Layne do Ozzy's introductory, "All right now!" just puts a Horror-movie-sized SMILE on my face! It's not the full track, but it's enough. This video was posted by Nerojotun on their Youtube channel, which is filled with Alice in Chains stuff. Check them out HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

K and I rewatched Jordan Peele's NOPE Saturday night. Hot damn - this movie is absolutely my favorite of Peele's films, and that's saying something because I really dig all of them.

All the characters are so endearing and relatable, human and distinct. It doesn't 'give' the viewer anything - totally drops everything in front of you the entire time and just lets you either pick it up and piece it together or not. Peele's not concerned with convincing or converting anyone; he just wants to make killer cinema. And he does. 

---

---

---

Play:

Cosmic Horror Metroidvania for Switch? Holy shit, sign me up:

Voidwrought hits Switch on 10/24. Thanks to Bloody Disgusting for posting about this one, as it was not on my radar at all. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)

Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years

Crystal Castles - (II)

Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium Undreamable Abysses

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium Nahab

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)

Alice in Chains - Dirt

The Replacements - Tim

Silent - Modern Hate

---

---

---

Card:

Card for today:

"Structure, time and space. Laws of growth and decay. Completion." - That's from a book I have named Keywords for the Crowley Tarot. I like this because, to me, Fortune - The Wheel in traditional Tarot - is an example of the laws of space and time. Simply put, what goes around comes around. I don't believe in Karma, per se, but as a concept, I think it's close (I just don't like the word, probably because hippies adopted and ruined it). 

Alice in Chains Dirt - 32 Years Old Today

 

One of those records that changed my life. Happy Birthday, Dirt. Love You!!!

The Mystery Lights - Cerebral Crack

Another fantastic find courtesy of Mr. Brown. I love this record! It reminds me a bit of The Monks' Black Monk Time, a bit of The Black Lips, and a bit of a general "Nuggets" era garage band or bands I can't quite put my finger on. Order the new album Purgatory directly from the band's Bandcamp HERE, from Daptone's new Rock subsidiary Wick Records HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

Last night, K and I went to the theatre to see the new E.L. Katz/Simon Barrett film Azrael. Solid Post- Apocalyptic Survival flick. It's also part of what I've come to think of as the "Subtraction Apocalypse" subgenre - you take an apocalyptic event and then remove a sense from the survivors. Josh Malerman's Birdbox takes sight, A Quiet Place takes sound, Azrael has its own spin.

If you're even remotely interested in seeing Azrael in the theatre, do so soon - this one is definitely not going to last past next Thursday on the big box screens. That said, it's another Shudder/IFC collaboration, so it should be on Shudder in 2-3 months.

Also, Coralie Fargeat's Reality+ short film was the subject of a recent article on Bloody Disgusting (read the article HERE), and while I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, I wanted to leave it here as a placeholder. 

I haven't found a Director whose work has grabbed me like this in a very long time.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing to Taste

White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000

The Damned - A Night of A Thousand Vampires

Joy Division - Still

Type O Negative - Dead Again

The Mystery Lights - Purgatory

METZ - Up On Gravity Hill

---

---

---

New Music from The Cure!!!

 

New music from The Cure! From the album Songs Of A Lost World, out November 1st. Pre-order HERE. I definitely wasn't expecting to see this today. I'd heard some titterings that amounted to, "The Cure are up to something," but that's about the extent of any foreknowledge I had of a new album. Full Disclosure: I can't remember the last new Cure record I listened to, kind of left them at Blood Flowers - which I don't know hardly at all - but I'm curious. 

---

---

---

Watch:

Ready to have your heart ripped open again? The Last of Us season two is coming. Here's the teaser, which I'm not even going to bother to watch.

 

As I'm sure I mentioned here previously, I have never played the Last of Us game, so the storyline is completely new to me. I dig it; however, I will say it's A LOT emotionally, and season one took me a bit to get through. It's more difficult to watch a post-apocalyptic story with such emotional weight when you basically live in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

---

---

---

NCBD Addendum:

A quick word on the new DSTLRY book, The Missionary, that I mentioned yesterday. Stay away. Awful. Reminds me of when Todd McFarlane and a bunch of the other "hot" artists at the moment split off and formed Image. Yes, Image Comics ended up being a very good thing, but most of those first gen guys should have stuck to art, as they really only approached writing as a means to string a bunch of awesome pictures together. Which, admittedly, was the comic zeitgeist at the time; however, that was also mainly because of them.

Anyway, I couldn't even make it through the first issue of The Missionary. I might try again - Jason Howard's art is fantastic - but man, it's just not good. There's a scene early on with the demon possessing the main character, where they're having this interior monologue back-and-forth that just feels so cheesy; I experienced a similar cringe to the one Beetlejuice Beetlejuice inspired in me several nights ago. Maybe it's because I'm a little over half through my third reading of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, wherein the prose is intelligent and elegant, to say nothing of the plotting and storytelling. Miéville's work unfolds so intricately that I don't have time for a book that seems to be shooting for a goofy take on Angels and Demons, wearing a sort of artistic clumsiness on its sleeve as part of its style. 

No thanks.

---

---

---

Playlist:

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

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Coasters, The Brains & Rezurex - Yakety Yak (single)

Rezurex - Bat Music for Bat People

Beastmilk - Climax

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST

Various - Rocktober Blood OST

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

---

---

---

John Bonham

44 years ago today. Damn. Maybe When the Levee Breaks is old hat to some, but I'll never get tired of this song, and what's more, this song IS the drums. Not just how they're played, but how they're recorded. 

---

---

---