bunsenburner - Rituals

Sometimes the algorithm works in our favor (even if it will ultimately undo humanity completely). Case in point - bunsenburder's Rituals popped into my youtube feed last Friday. The front cover artwork reminded me of Genghis Tron's Dead Mountain Mouth, so I clicked play.

Forty-Seven minutes later I was left pretty much in awe. 

You just won't believe where this one goes based on how it begins. I LOVE this band! Hailing from Freiburg Im Breisgau, Germany, here's the bio taken directly from their Bandcamp:

"bunsenburner evolved into an ever-rotating and expanding hive mind initially conceived and realised by the bassist and producer Ben Krahl in 2012."

Kinda sounds like a description of The Ocean early on in their career, right?

There's stuff on Rituals that reminds me of early Jucifer albums, of The Sword, of Angelo Badalamenti, The Calexico... the list goes on, and while it's not my intention to drown bunsenburner's music in comparisons - because honestly, that's not really possible with so unique an outfit as this, especially after you begin digging through their previous albums - I wanted to give folks enough to make them seek these guys out. 

You can pick up a limited edition cassette copy of Rituals on the Bandcamp HERE, or also support the band digitally. 

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Watch:

Cinematic Void dropped a trailer for Up All Night - every Saturday this October, the Cinemadness movie will run on the Cinematic Void youtube channel HERE. 

I can't say enough good things about Cinematic Void. Founder James Branscome does some of the best programming in the states in my opinion, and now that he's expanded from being L.A.-centric to including The Music Box in Chicago and other cities like Boston, I really wanted to help spread the word a bit farther afield. Check the Void out online and if you follow them over on FB, Twitter or Instagram and see a show close to you pop up, check it out. Also, as I've mentioned here plenty of times previously, the Cinematic Void Podcast is one of the best cult/Horror/exploitation podcasts out there. You can find them on Apple Podcasts HERE or Spotify HERE and, of course, the show is available pretty much anywhere else you might get your podcasts.

Also, and I just discovered this myself, The Void has a pretty awesome Big Cartel shop HERE.

  

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Playlist:

The Hives - The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons

High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remix/remaster)

King Woman - Celestial Blues

bunsenburner - Rituals

Final Light - Eponymous

Trauma is Trauma: A Mental Health Talk with Kevin Smith

Metallica - 72 Seasons

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP

Pastor T.L. Barret and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

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Card:

• Three of Disks:Work

• I: The Magus

• Queen of Disks

The Three of Disks indicates successful growth, although I'm always quick to add that growth will come as the result of some kind of labor. Not necessarily hard, physical labor. In this case here, the card's referencing my own mental labor, as I try and twist the disparate elements I've set up in the new novel and have them coalesce into the climax I can feel, but can't quite 'see' yet.

The Magus indicates, of course, that Magick will come in handy. I know this; my Magick IS the work and my commitment to it, because as so many Chaos Magicians have told us, from Hine to Moore to Spare, it's all about The Will.

The Queen of Disks reminds me to be emotionally grounded during this period. This is a direct reference to a kind of mini disassociative state that can sometimes swallow me when I'm so zeroed in that I drive myself crazy because, as Life would have it, I just can't always work on what I want to based on, you know, the day job, family, friends, etc. A good reminder.

 

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Underworld - Skym

Here's a song I love in such a quiet way that I never really stop to think about it. This and "Winjer" are sandwiched between heavy hitters "Shudder/King of Snakes" and "Bruce Lee" on Beaucoup Fish, and because of that, they both get kind of passed over. While "Winjer" definitely still feels like a 'corridor' track, "Skym" has this wonderful complexity bubbling below its quiet surface and at some point, it kind of stealthily sunk into my deepest feelings for this record that I love so much.

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Watch:

Last night I hit the first showing of André Øvredal's latest film The Last Voyage of the Demeter. I was not a fan of the trailer, which I've sat through multiple times at the Cinema, and although the film rubbed me a bit wrong right at the start with its inherent "Big Studio Feel," Demeter ends up being pretty solid.

For a Dreamworks film, Øvredal makes some decidedly stunning choices. Even more stunning is that those choices got through the Big Studio filter. Makes me curious what they might have forced him to cut. I don't want to give the impression this flick is some gnarly Horror film - you can tell from those trailers that it's not - but at times, it's a lot more savage than I would have expected. Three stars out of Five and a Heart on Letterbxd. 

And on the Horizon...

  

Having never heard of the Elevator Game before an episode of Paramount Plus's Evil - highly recommended, btw - I was pretty stoked when, on the Colors of the Dark podcast sometime last year, Rebekah McKendry mentioned her next film would be based on this weird A.F. urban legend. Now, here's the trailer:

I love actual Urban Legends, but the movies based on them almost always fall short for me. Holding out hope this won't fall into that same problem for me. 

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Playlist:

High On Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remixed/remastered)

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish

Ganser - Odd Talk

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Comic Book Herald - Talking Krakoa X-Men Hellfire Gala 2023 Post-Game Show

Team Sleep - Eponymous

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Wands

• Queen of Pentacles

• Six of Pentacles

A breakthrough of Will leads to understanding and acceptance of defining terms. That's a bit opaque, however, being that the Queen of Pentacles is the Emotional approach to Earthly matters and the Six of Pentacles is a balanced, 'perfected' state, I choose to read this as another reminder to follow the path before me, even is at kicks and bucks. I made huge progress in the last twenty-four hours based on the fact that yesterday's reading was spot on, so I'll continue the trend today.

 

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High On Fire's First Album Again

Man, I was pretty skeptical when I heard High On Fire were having their first album, The Art of Self Defense remastered for a re-release. On the one hand, it's still probably my favorite of their albums (Blessed Black Wings comes a pretty close second, though). Yet, while I still have the original, Man's Ruin CD version of Self Defense I bought at Crow's Nest Records in Down Town Chicago shortly after it came out in 2000, I'd love to have the record on vinyl, so it was with great trepidation I hit play on Apple Music this morning...

It's awesome. My greatest fear was they would raise Pike's voice and over-compress; not that there's a precedent for the latter with the band's subsequent releases, and I love Pike's voice as it's come to more prominence with each release after this one, but there's something so amazing about the way Self Defense sounded the day I brought it home, sparked up and put it in the stereo all those years ago. I was perplexed by the singer's voice being so low (this was my introduction to the new wave of "Stoner Rock" as everyone was calling it at the time, having previously enjoyed St. Vitus and Count Raven more 'flush with the mix" vocals on WXAV, 88.3 FM, St. Xavier's College Radio), but marveled at the way the guitars sparkled like they do for only one other human being I know - Tony Iommi! The rhythm section was so tight, so pummelling; it was all just such a fresh experience compared to whatever else was out there at the time Metal-wise. So The Art of Self Defense looms large in my life, and as with anything we deem to be of that importance, I felt nervous as hell about anyone changing it.

Again, no reason to be nervous. This shit rules!

"Blood From Zion" feels the most changed from the first side of the album ("Master of Fists" sounds like a different guitar take altogether was used for this release). Interestingly, for most of the tracks, Matt Pike's voice remains at just about the exact same level it was at in the original release; it's just clearer. Nice trick! The descending riff that bridges the first and second verses has to be heard on headphones to be believed. IT'S SO FUCKING HEAVY. I mean, it was always so fucking heavy, but it's like they added subsonic bulldozers to the mix or something. SO GOOD. 

You can find this pretty much everywhere online, however, High On Fire's Bandcamp has an exclusive, and while I love that original cover, I do still have that CD (remember Grace note database or whatever that function iTunes had where, if you transferred a CD to digital it could find the album information for you? When I digitized my old Self Defense to put on an iPod back in the late 00s, it came back with The Art of Self Defense, by Sleep!). 

Yeah, I think I can make room in my soul for this cover, too. You can also order directly from MNRK Heavy HERE, where the non-exclusive still has the same cover and will cost you a few bucks less on shipping.

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Watch:

Two nights ago, K and I watched Kurtis David Harder's newest film, Influencer on Shudder. I dug Harder's previous film Spiral quite a bit, but based on the title of this one, I was expecting a story about a completely unlikeable Influencer who gets her comeuppance.

Nope!

I'm not going to post the trailer, because you shouldn't watch it. Yes, in the opening sequence of the film, you meet a really annoying social media influencer. Stick with it! That's not what the film is; this one reminded me A LOT of the experience I had watching Brad Anderson's Transsiberian back in 2008 or 2009, whenever it first hit video. Both films take continuous ninety-degree turns, so without having seen a trailer or read anything about either, I was left wondering from scene to scene, "Oh, is this what the film is about? Is this the landscape the characters are going to have to live in?" And, so beautifully, those assumptions were always squashed as something new gets introduced to change the film's narrative yet again. Really fun watch; not Horror, but a thriller for sure. Save it for a night when you want twists and turns more than blood and guts.

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Playlist:

††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

††† - Eponymous

The Bronx - The Bronx (III)

Various - Lost Highway OST

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Deftones - White Pony

Converge - Jane Doe

Blue Karma - The Friction, the Pain

      

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XIV - Temperance or "Art" in Thoth speak

• Four of Swords 

• Three of Swords

Fight for your Art! Fours show stability and Threes the process of Growth or Change. The Novel's becoming something more than I'd planned, and while it's more work, I can temper myself against that and fight on toward the finish line.

Tarot aside, if you dig Jonathan Grimm's Bound deck, he has a Kickstarter launching on September 5th for his new deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot. This one's all Metal, Monsters, Magick in one beautiful deck. Here's the link; the campaign isn't active yet, but you can hit the Notify Me button and get in on the ground floor September 5th!

 

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The Besnard Lakes - She's an Icicle

 

Somehow, I totally missed that The Besnard Lakes released a three-song EP last year. The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP is one of my favorite missives from the band in some time, and of its three perfect tracks, opener She's an Icicle is, to me, everything I love so much about the band: the swirling morass of guitars fx and keys, Bonham-esque beats and Jace's heavenly voice surrounded by layer upon layer of harmony, all combining to make a dirgey rock and roll ephemera. You can order this directly from the band HERE.

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NCBD:

Short and sweet this week. Here we go:

I love the fact that we still haven't seen all of the fallout from the events of this year's Hellfire Gala. Man! I'm still blown away by that issue. So much changed so fast. Based on this cover, I think we're going to start really feeling things with this issue.

I wasn't going to read this issue the same way I keep saying I'm dropping Ghost Rider's main monthly book, but they keep pulling me back in. The idea that there's a new Weapon X/Weapon Plus program coming, but one that utilizes the stolen powers of Hell just blows my mind. HIGHEST of concepts; let's hope they pull it off. 

 

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Brew:

I stumbled across this on Kickstarter recently (Thanks to an email from Unplugged, the beer tracking app), and I'm pretty tempted to get in on this one:

It's a lot of money, but seems like it would definitely pay for itself at some point. Or, it would just make me drink more. Hmm...

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Read:

I finished Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper yesterday and am happy to report I was blown right the fuck away. Talk about one-upping the original. I'm not saying Reaper is better than Chainsaw, but to be as good, with even more stakes, well, damn. Just damn. Now we just have to wait until March 26, 2024, for the final installment, The Angel of Indian Lake. 

Now, of course, I need something new to read and I just don't know what can follow SGJ. I've had Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls in my Kindle forever, but my friend Jesus sent me a physical copy a few months ago and it's on my nightstand, so I guess that's the winner by default. 

This one comes highly recommended by a lot of people; however, for whatever reason, I've been reluctant. I LOVED Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism back when I read it circa 2017, so much so that I actually bought something like half a dozen copies and sent them to a bunch of friends for their birthdays at the time. That experience left me feeling like I would read anything Hendrix wrote, then a funny thing happened. I watched Satanic Panic, which Hendrix wrote the screenplay for, and hated it so much that it turned me off instantly. If questioned, I no longer even remember what it was I disliked about that flick, and a good friend recently said he saw it and loved it, so I'm thinking if We Sold Our Souls goes over well, I may give that another go, too.

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Playlist:

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow Live at CBGB

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP

††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

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Card:

• Ace of Disks

• III The Empress

• Queen of Cups

Ace of Disks always reads as a monetary or 'Earthly' breakthrough, and combined with The Empressthe implied Motherly qualities of The Empress and the Emotional fortitude of the Queen of Cups, I'd say this is directly referring to my folks coming down here this weekend to house hunt. 

 

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New Music From †††

 

I did not realize we had a new full-length on the way from Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez's †††, but Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. officially drops on October 13th. Pre-order Here.

This one took me a minute to warm up to, and I'm done with it until the full-length arrives, simply because with †††, I really feel the context of an entire recording makes their songs that much stronger.

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The Vinyl High:

A couple new acquisitions showed up on my doorstep last week. First up, Bohren and der Club of Gore's 2000 MASTERPIECE, Sunset Mission:

This is one I've wanted for quite some time. Available HERE on the Pias label's website; I'd seen a few complaints on Discogs about this pressing being noisy, but not my copy. Pristine, Sunset Mission was made to be heard on vinyl. This one is kind of the nexus of everything I love about the music in Twin Peaks and everything I love about the music in Cowboy BeBop, so finally acquiring it on vinyl kind of completes a bit of a trilogy for me, I guess. 

Next up, John Harrison's Soundtrack for George A. Romero's Day of the Dead:

I honestly don't know how I passed this one by for so long. I'd actually forgotten Waxwork Records released this until two Fridays ago when I watched the Joe Bob Brigg's Last Drive-In season finale, where Joe Bob and Darcy not only played and talked about Romero's third entry in his original Zombie trilogy but also had a small cast reunion with Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander and Jarlath Conroy. I'd already been thinking about Boards of Canada a lot recently, in that I started following the BOC fan Instagram page, where one post kind of marveled over all the negative reactions to 2013's Tomorrow's Harvest. Easily my favorite album by BoC - which is really saying something because I have deep connections to most of their records - not only did I never understand how so many people didn't like this, I doubly didn't understand how 80s Horror fans don't like Harvest, because it plays so much like a Carpenter/Romero score. This is especially true of Harrison's work on Day of the Dead, where most of Harvest would seemingly be right at home following the opening track of the movie.

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Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Witchskull - The Serpent Tide

The Cure - Pornography

Fabio Frizi - House By the Cemetery OST

Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

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Card:

• Six of Disks Success

• Princess of Disks

• Three of Cups: Abundance

This feels like a direct response to yesterday's Pull, as a lot of my reservations disappeared as soon as I started really applying my force of Will to make progress and achieve success in a few chapters that seemed hopelessly lost a day or so ago.

 

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RIP William Friedkin

 

New Music from 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards!

Well, I totally fucked up Marty and Drexel's Live Music Week, so here's some new music from former 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards. 

It's hard to imagine a band and album that affected me more in the early 00s than 16 Horsepower's Low Estate. I love everything they did, and everything David Eugene Edwards followed that band in Wovenhand, and now everything he's released under his name (which is still also known as Wovenhand? I'm not really sure). But everything has been chasing that feeling I got the first time I heard "Brimstone Rock" and the thirteen songs that follow it. But that's the thing with an artist like Edwards - he makes such a deep impact upon introduction because his approach, his songwriting, his tone and his lyrics all combine to make such a signature sound, that it's similar to but completely unlike anything you've heard before until you hear him. So too with this new track from the forthcoming album Hyacinth, out September 29th on Sargent House. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

I watched a couple flicks over the weekend, but none I enjoyed more than 2018's The Meg:

When I saw this in the theatre upon its original release, I didn't really care for it. Didn't hate it, but nothing about The Meg grabbed me at the time. After hearing Ben Wheatley is directing the sequel, and after seeing a trailer for Meg 2: The Trench a few weeks ago and really digging it (I can't turn the deep sea trench thing down, and there appears to be a lot more of that in this film), K and I decided to rewatch the first movie. You know what? LOTS of fun. I don't know if I was just in a more accepting mood because of my interest in the sequel, but I really had a good time with The Meg this time. 

 

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Read:

Less than one hundred pages from the end, I can tell you that Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper is one of the best sequels ever! 

I blew through almost two hundred pages yesterday, which wasn't easy to do as we had guests visiting from out of town. This is one of those carry-it-everywhere-and-read-it-any-chance-you-get novels, and I am 100% riveted. If you've still not read My Heart is a Chainsaw and you love literature, Horror novels, Slasher flicks or just a damn good yard, grab that and this in one swoop and dig in. 
        

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Playlist:

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands

Led Zeppelin - Eponymous

Led Zeppelin - IV

The Door - L.A. Woman

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 2: Philosophy of Beyond

Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Sandrider - Godhead

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin

Various - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo

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Card:

• Three of Disks: Works

• Five of Cups: Disappointment

• Ten of Cups: Sobriety

I'm having self-doubt that I can pull off this new novel the way I want to. That's a bit vague, but the cards definitely seem to be referencing this fear. There is a height I feel as though this story can attain, I'm just not sure I'm completely on the path to achieving that. Which would be a shame, because if I finish it and it's not what I want, I'll have to take a break for a while and come back to it. The Three of Disks indicate success through effort but juxtaposed with disappointing results. The Ten of Cups indicates perfect alignment, which leaves me needing a clarifying card:

• XVII: The Star indicates a turning point for the positive. Also, from the grimoire:

"Fulfillment - when this comes up, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan."

 

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