And I thought I really liked the lead release off May Our Chambers Be Full! This is killer, and I can't wait for the EP, which can be pre-ordered from Sacred Bones Records HERE.
Watch:
I'm really getting back into this Marvel thing:
Playlist:
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Hollywood (pre-release single)
What the hell? Back in January, we lost former Cynic drummer Sean Reinert, now at the polar opposite end of the year, we lose bassist Sean Malone? Good lord. Here's the close-out track from Cynic's last full-length album, 2014's Kindly Bent to Free Us. It's fucking gorgeous. Rest in Peace Sean Malone.
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All this awesome Spiderman news has me in the mood to, well, to finally watch the MCU Spiderman flicks, none of which I've seen! But it's also got me in the mood for some Marvel, and this show right here is numero uno on my, "I can't wait give it to me right damn now" list.
Playlist:
Cynic - Kindly Bent to Free us
Curtis Harding - Face Your Fear
Jehnny Beth - To Love is to Live
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Warsazawa (from Stage, disc 1)
Sir Neville Marriner and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Amadeus OST
David Bowie - Earthling
White Lung - Paradise
Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Hollywood (pre-release single)
Card:
Ah, my old friend, the Queen of Swords.
I keep getting this when I veer back on track. From my October 10th post, where I drew this card:
"...clear insights and the fresh perspective of adopting the perspective of another and cutting your own head off long enough to truly experience that other perspective..."
A violent reaffirmation of rulership over your emotions and intellect. I associate 'violence' in this respect, as my turning back on the deep dive function for writing. I pulled a major three hours yesterday, and made fantastic progress.
I have a very push/pull with this video. Two days ago my good friend Jacob sent me a link to Jehnny Beth's debut record, To Love is to Live. You may remember her from Savages, whose 2013 debut Silence Yourself still resounds as one of my favorite records of the previous decade. Savages' follow-up Adore Life came out in 2016 and just kind of left me flat. I go back to it every now and again, but the 'a-ha' moment has never come. Still, I hold out hope that one day it might.
So too, my first couple of attempts at listening to To Love is to Live were completely unsuccessful. I put the record away, went about my business, and came back to it later for a fresh perspective. This time, I perused the track listing before jumping in from the beginning, as I am most often wont to do, and decided to start with the fifth track on the record, "A Place Above", simply because the listing said featuring Cillian Murphy, and I was curious what that would sound like. You can actually hear that track in the video above for track six, "I'm The Man", as it serves as something of a prologue to the song. I'm happy to report, from this track on, the album opened to me in a way that very much made me appreciate Ms. Beth in a way I don't think I have before. The video above, directed by Anthony Byrne, is gorgeously shot and lit, even if the theatrics themselves that comprise the narrative of the video's run time leave me a little harumphed.
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If you've listened to any of the recent episodes of The Horror Vision - we've been weekly for a month or two now - you'll have heard me talk about Eibon Press's four-issue comics expansion/adaptation of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond. I loved the book, and immediately ordered the trade paperback collection The Gates of Hell, which does for Fulci's City of the Living Dead what the aforementioned comic did for The Beyond. There's a big picture here, and it excites the F*CK out of me. One of the things that converted me to such a huge fan of Fulci's Gates of Hell Trilogy is the mythos, the larger picture that can be glimpsed beneath the films. It reminds me of HP Lovecraft's mythos, and I think Eibon Press is breaking serious ground by going in and fleshing it out.
After talking about this on our show, Eibon Press founder Sean Lewis hit me up online. There will be an interview coming up down the road, but before that, some more reviews, as he sent review copies of a lot of other Eibon books with my Gates of Hell trade.
First up was House By the Cemetery, three issues that further my favorite Fulci film in ways that directly connect it to the other two movies in the series. Next, that Gates of Hell trade is calling my name, so first, K and I re-watched City of the Living Dead last night.
Easily the poorest of the three films in this cycle, the comic will only be able to improve the story, for which there is only the barest hint of in the film. Don't get me wrong, I still dig it, but even that clipped, nightmare logic that makes The Beyond work so well kind of fails here, as we move from scene to scene with a pretty transparent disregard for anything but the gore and atmosphere.
Interestingly, while this is the weakest of the three Gates of Hell flicks as far as story is concerned, City contains the best FX in any of these: Bob's drill-through-the-head death scene doesn't suffer from the usual tail-end let down present in most of these movies, where you can see how the actor is replaced by a close-up of the model. Below, compare Bob's death with the infamous 'gut-spewing' scene from this same movie, where you can clearly see the actress replaced by a dummy (again, not badmouthing here, just saying).
I should add, these are some especially gross-out clips (okay, really just the second one), so press play at your own risk:
Anyway, as I said, Eibon press's Gates of Hell comic can only improve on this one, so I can't wait to dig in later today.
Playlist:
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Me and That Man - Songs of Love and Death
Queens of the Stone Age - ... Like Clockwork
Curtis Harding - Face Your Fear
Venue - One Without a Second
Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone
Card:
Twos are often an indication of balance, I can't help feeling that is a spot-on assessment of the morning so far.
Two's also indicate cycles, shorter cycles, and I feel a few loops closing in the near future. This is good, as I seem to constantly be opening more of them.
Out February 5th on Sacred Bones, with a variant that I pre-ordered from Waxwork, which I am now ridiculously excited for after hearing this track!
NCBD:
You can set your freakin' watch by how on-time this book is every month.
Lonely Receiver's penultimate issue. I'm really enjoying this one, and things really crystalized last issue, so this is sure to be pretty F*ked up!
I'm unclear whether this "Zero" issue of the Locke and Key/Sandman crossover due out early next year is a full issue, or simply what amounts to an ashcan-sized promo. I'm also unsure why this is coming up as being out this week but has October 2020 across the front cover.
Playlist:
Ainoma - Necropolis
Airiel - Molten Young Lovers
Barrie - Canyons (single)
Barrie - Happy To Be Hear
The Blueflowers - Circus on Fire
The Blueflowers - Relapse EP
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny
Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Card:
Let go of your preconceived notions and prepare to shake things up a bit. Feels like I could really use this.
New Order dropped an EP last Friday. Here's the first 'single.' Awesome tune, not at all where my head is at right now, but I have a feeling this will come in handy in a few days or so.
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My Co-Host on The Horror Vision Chris Saunders and I have decided to try and do a week-by-week podcast exploration of CBS' The Stand series starting on December 17th. I'm a King fan for sure, but I've never been a rabid one, and I've never undertaken the commitment to read The Stand. Usually, in undertaking a project like this, I'd set aside what I'm reading and try and 'bang it out' before the launch of the show, however, there's just no way. The original cut of the novel is 823 pages, but the expanded is lost 1500. Add to that the fact that I started 2020 reading a very long novel about a pandemic (Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, which despite it's eerie parallels to our reality while I read it - or perhaps because of it - still occupies my mind on an almost daily basis and lingers with a strong A+ rating in my book) and, well, for obvious reasons don't want to finish it out doing the same. So I'm doing the audiobook. Which, at ten chapters in, frankly isn't great.
Still, having read the Dark Tower books since shortly after The Drawing of the Three, I've wanted to read The Stand since early High School. In the Dark Tower books, Roland and his compatriots travel across worlds and, at one point, end up in the world of The Stand, a world decimated by a flu-like virus called Captain Tripps. Weird timing for the show to be coming out, but I'm excited to cover it, as it's been a while since I've done something like this, and it's not so often I get to work with Chris these days. So win win.
The Horror Vision:
The New episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast went up yesterday. We talk about the Barbara Crampton-produced Castle Freak remake, which I LOVED, along with Freaky, Max Brooks's Devolution, and a bunch of the Mario Bava that just landed on Shudder recently. And as usual, that's really only the tip of the iceberg. Also, I'm doing anything with the video side of this show yet, but I've started posting the episodes on youtube as of late.
Playlist:
Behemoth - The Satanist
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire
James Last - Christmas Dancing
Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas
Orville Peck - Pony
The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop OST
Daniel Pemberton - Motherless Brooklyn OST
Jehnny Beth - To Love is to Live
Opeth - Deliverance
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny
New Order - Be a Rebel
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
David Bowie - Black Star
Card:
Ah, the wonderful Knight of Disks, the Fire in the Element of Earth.
Interpreted here as a pragmatic focus on and progression with ongoing projects. Industrious perseverance. Bread winner and objective provider.
While the world around us went to Hell, I used a constant influx of awesome music to stay sane. There were A LOT of great records this year, here are my favorite ten.
Manuel Gagneux has proven he's not going anywhere, and on Wake of a Nation - an EP with a more robust run-time than some albums - he's begun to shift his work from clever Alt-History to a poignant contemplation on current global events to chilling, heart-pound results.
I've never cared too much about RTJ's other albums - none of it's bad, but none of it is irreplaceable to me - but THIS! Partially because of when it dropped, partially because of how it dropped, partially because they refuse to participate in all the Hip Hop tropes that make me skeptical of the genre, and especially because it's just that good. Killer Mike and El-P can both rhyme like madmen - a lost art if you do a quick who's who of the 'name brands' of rap at the moment - and on top of it, they can actually do so eloquently on pretty much every urgent topic of the day.
Two years ago, when I fell in love with Ms. Rundle's music, it never would have dawned on me how well it would mesh with Thou's. Imagine my pleasant surprise then when the first track from this album dropped. To Thou is one of those "Beautifully brutal" bands that transcend any genre or classification for me, and something about their stoic sonic textures meshes perfectly with Emma Ruth Rundle's dark, contemplative musings.
The most 'balls out' record I heard this year. Infinitely repeatable and perfectly balanced between hooking you and punching you in the goddamn face.
I can't even believe the range on display here. One might have thought Greg Puciato's first solo record would have come out sounding a bit like Black Queen and DEP in a blender.
One would be perfectly incorrect. This is... an evolution not many metal frontmen could ever pull off. I remember the days when I could see Mike Patton's influence on Greg Puciato. Now I only see his own personal creative resilience.
Recontextualizing so many different sounds from Heavy Music's last twenty-five years: I hear Alice in Chains, I hear Fear Factory, I hear Bungle, I hear Slipknot. Only, that's not all I hear. I also hear a template for a band that sounds like none of those things exactly and nothing like anything I've heard before. And I want more.
The first Bungle album in twenty years is a redux of their demo - which I never gave a shit about listening to even at my most rabid Bungle fan stage - and it's being re-worked and performed with Thrash Icons Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian? There was simply no way this one didn't make it onto the list. Also the best concert of the year, although of course, there haven't been any concerts since about three weeks after I saw them, so that may be slightly skewed.
This band reminds me so much of the kind of bands I couldn't get enough of in the late 90s. I loved the first Exhalants record, then they went and deepened their sound into this and I had to do a double-take. These guys are for fucking real and I will follow them to the ends of the Earth. Which, incidentally, might not be that long to follow them for, but still.
Another band that just can't do anything wrong. The Deftones continue to push the edges of their sound in unexpected directions, and while there's no mistaking this for anything but a Deftones record, ain't nothing wrong with that at all.
And actually, as my friend Jacob pointed out, there is at least one passage that could easily lead one to believe the tracks had unexpectedly rotated over to a Vangelis song.
I guess I needed some beauty in my life this year, and Fleet Foxes Shore definitely qualifies as the most beautiful new album I heard in 2020.
It was a weird year, and some of these records I didn't even listen to as much as you would think for them to make such an impression on me. But I've begun spending a good deal of time on narrative podcasts and audiobooks, as well as a fixation on a lot of music that predates 2020. Maybe then, the less-listened to entries on this list won their spot by making such a large impression in so few listens?
I've had a feeling this would happen eventually. Previously, even before I discovered Me and That Man, I tried on several occasions to find what it was about Behemoth that people had become so fanatical about. Unlike Frontman and Brainspring Nergal's more recent project, I just could never relate to it. Behemoth always left me cold, and not in a good way. Friday morning, however, a random algorithmic playlist by Apple Music rotated "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" through my ears and suddenly, I got it.
I've only consumed 2014's highly lauded The Satanist thus far, but the momentum behind that first go-through is enough to have me chomping at the bit for more. Behemoth has a very specific sound, or at least that's how I hear it and why I ended up falling into it so hard. It has a lot to do with the way the bass guitar is played, recorded, and mixed in relation to everything else, but moving out from there, the guitars, drums, vocals, and other accompanying instrumentation feel very much arranged or composed, as opposed to assembled by more conventional means.
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Wow. Not only did I find this small peak into Orville Peck's life fascinating, but Alfred MarroquÃn's direction is as beautiful and moving as Peck's narration. I've avoided watching or learning too much about Peck's life, as I think his enigmatic persona compliments the deserted Lynchian Highway of his music. Marroquin balanced exactly the right amount of 'behind the curtain' with spectacle here, and this short Doc is all the better for it.
Playlist:
Behemoth - The Satanist
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
David Bowie - Live Nassau Coliseum '76
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Anthrax - Among the Living
Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
Card:
Motivation and Drive, which feels spot-on as several projects ramp up here, at the end of what feels like a top-heavy year, as far as productiveness is concerned. There's a feeling of acceleration as we head into the new year, almost an unruliness. Looking at the Prince of Wands, reading the almost out-of-control momentum on the card's face, I'm reminded that recklessness can negate ambition quite easily.
