New Perturbator Coming SOON!

This particular track is old now - dropped way earlier in the year. That said, I think it's the most recent release from James Kent under his Perturbator moniker. Recently, I went through a big jab on Kent's music and got to thinking that, damn, it's been a minute. Lustful Sacraments dropped in 2021 and Final Light in 2022, so we're due. Then I saw this:

FUCK YES!!! https://t.co/wgLfQUqn9L

— HorrorvisionPod (@HorrorvisionP) December 24, 2024

I immediately checked the Blood Music website and found it is down for updates, so that tells me the new record is coming SOON! Perturbator is by far their biggest name - not to take anything away from the other wonderful artists on Blood Music - and it makes sense they would reconfigure the site to accommodate a drop this big. So I'm checking daily and wanted to pass the tip along.

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NCBD:

This week's pull is on Thursday, and it's the biggest one in a while:

New book. Not sure I'm picking this up until I hold it in my hands, but I dig the concept and the art. Here's the solicitation blurb from League of Comic Geeks:

"A tormented Oklahoma sheriff and a scrappy photojournalist hunt a serial killer at the height of the dust-choked Great Depression.

In the darkest days of the Great Depression, death stalks the Dust Bowl. As towering dust storms blast the parched Oklahoma panhandle, farmers try to flee the failing town of New Hope, but no one gets far. Battling his own demons, Sheriff Meadows teams up with Sarah, a traveling photojournalist, in a desperate fight to stop a serial killer on the loose — the Death that rides the Dusters."

I'm not going to lie; part of my interest in this one stems from its similarities to a project I previously worked on with Jonathan Grimm. Our never really caught hold of our creative energies, but I'm curious as hell to see someone else work with the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Scott Snyder and Attila Futaki kind of took this road with Severed - which is excellent - but the setting in that one wasn't quite the character it sounds like here. 

Being that DC books come out on Tuesday, I actually messaged Rick's to see if this came out and it did! Great excuse to re-read the first two and hopefully prep for the fourth and final book, which, as of now, has no solicitation date.

Things are heating up in the Battle for Springfield. We have mutated Cobra Vipers of all varieties, ninjas, robots - after avoiding the absurd for so long, Larry Hama has embraced the SciFi potential of this property with open arms without sacrificing his real-world military background, and it works!

Issue one was pretty cool, so I'm in on this Norwegian Black Metal Horror/Thriller. We've got a dad female fan/photographer, a nefarious band, and a whole lot of Vengeance coming down through the woods.

I think I said the same thing last month, but what the hell - HOT ROD! I felt a little guilty not putting Void Rivals in my Top Ten Comics of 2024 list, but Transformers and Cobra Commander won out on what is at least a partial nostalgic advantage. Still, this book is probably my favorite of the Energon Universe, and it just keeps getting better as those properties we love are enmeshed in Kirkman's new addition. 

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Watch:

Tonight! All my dodging and weaving to avoid Robert Egger's Nosferatu trailer pays off when I plop my arse in the theatre and watch it for the first time (pretty sure there will be a return engagement):

My excitement for this one is not super high, not because I think it will be anything short of extraordinary, I'm still just a little baffled Eggers chose to follow The Northman with a remake. That said, my guess is Eggers's version will be less a remake and more his own thing. 

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

Windhand - Eternal Return

Windhand - Eponymous

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Mr. Bungle - Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Dreamkid - Daggers

Perturbator - Bloodlust (single)

Health - DISCO4 :: Part 1

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Cult of Luna - Vertikal I & II

Final Light - Eponymous

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Steve Moore - Mind's Eye OST

Steve Moore - VFW OST

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Card:

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

Love the way this deck looks under different lighting. 

This spread is basically a cautionary tale - watch out for dogmatic principles and false prophets who appeal to emotion.

John Carpenter for Christmas!

 

John Carpenter posted this on his YouTube channel yesterday. Very cool. 

Merry Christmas From Me & Calexico!

 From Calexico's EXCELLENT Seasonal Shift record, which Mr. Brown gifted me several years ago, and which has become a seasonal favorite. Have a wonderful holiday, secular or not, and remember! It's about Peace, Love and Happiness. As in, EVERYBODY'S happiness.

Favorite Comics of 2024

Last week, Mike Shinabargar and I released a video outlining our five favorite comics of 2024. I wanted to break that down and round the list out as a comprehensive Top Ten because that's how deep the Letterman runs in my DNA. 

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10) Andrew Krahnke's Bloodrik

A modern comics success story, I loved Andrew Krahnke's Bloodrik and am dying for more. A "Barbarian Survives in the Prehistoric Wilderness" story a la old-school Krull or Conan, Bloodrik is Krahnke's labor of love, taking it from a self-released project to a three-issue mini from Image. 

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9) Energon Universe: Transformers

Daniel Warren Johnson, Jorge Corona and their crew have, in just over two years, given us a brand new all-time Transformers continuity. Let me make my preferences plain: We have the original Transformers cartoon and movie (I really only care about the post-movie seasons), we have the original Marvel comic continuity developed by Bob Budiansky and later taken to glorifying new heights by Simon Furman, and for a looong time that was it. I didn't go looking for more, either. IDW fired off countless iterations that I had no interest in. 

Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe, however, is more than Nostalgia Fuel - it's proof you can revitalize nostalgic properties for a new age, taking the benefits of creative hindsight and applying them to make something new and exciting. This Transformers book does that, and I've loved every minute of it so far. Aso, SO much purple!

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8) Epitaphs From the Abyss

Earlier this year, seminal indie stalwart Oni Press acquired the rights to and relaunched EC Comics. Instead of just banking on the nostalgia and notoriety of the label, they actually approached this in a very smart and refreshing way. There are A LOT of Horror Anthologies on comic book stands these last few years, and none of them do the kind of justice to the format Epitaphs does. 

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7) Michael Walsh's Frankenstein

I've missed Michael Walsh's Horror Anthology The Silver Coin immensely this year, but having his take on my favorite Universal Monster acted as a nice reprieve from the Walsh-Withdrawal. I love Frank, both the original Novel version by Mary Shelley and the James Whale Hollywood version from the 30s, so seeing Walsh play in this world was wonderful. The four-issue mini-series retells the Whale version, adding new layers of depth by showing us the stories of several of the body parts that went into making the monster and how the acquisition of those pieces affected characters we had not been introduced to until now. 

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6) Phantom Road

The "Gottasee" of this book is staggering, and it's on bloody hiatus as Lemire starts up Minor Arcana and confesses he's burnt out on Horror. 

AHHHHHHHH!!!!

Seriously, we know so very little of what is happening in Phantom Road, but everything we've seen is bonkers, so I really hope Mr. Lemire and artist Gabriel H. Walta return soon.

Finally, here are my top five, which I'll list here but leave the video to explain (it's all pretty self-explanatory by this point, anyway). 

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5) Cobra Commander

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4) The Deviant

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3) Houses of the Unholy

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2) Principles of Necromancy

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1) Jeff Lemire's FISHFLIES

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Finally, a special shout out to Chip Zdarksy's Z Comic News, one of the most delightful surprises in years!

All in all, a really great year!

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Knower - Do Hot Girls Like Chords?

After posting about  Genevieve Artadi last week, my friend Garrett introduced me to the band Knower. While yes, that is a terrible name, this is a fantastic band, and Ms. Artadi provides vocals. I really don't know anything beyond the two tracks Garrett shared with me so far, but I'll be digging today.

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Watch:

I wasn't interested in this one until I saw John Carpenter is doing the score. 

Not a bad looking flick by any means, and odds are I would have gone to see it in the theatre just to go. The movie pass really makes that a no-brainer. But A24 has achieved that same connotation with me that Touchstone Pictures did in the 80s and Fox Searchlight did in the 00s - they have such a specific tone MOST of the time that they begin to feel as though there is an A24 checklist behind the production of each one. Again - there are definite exceptions to this. Most of their BIG releases still feel unique and important. But a lot of the 'fodder' that fills the calendar between those releases feels... rote. Will that be the case here? Well, I don't know, but I'm down for a non-Carpenter film scored by Carpenter, so I'm in.

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Playlist:

Final Light - Eponymous

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper

James Last - Christmas Dancing

Various - I'll Be Home for Christmas

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas

The Bangles - All Over the Place

Dreamkid - Daggers

The Smashing Pumpkins - Luna (single)

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Acme

Nat "King" Cole - Christmas with Nat King Cole

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

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Card:

Today's card for study is VII: The Chariot.

Here's what I have written in the Grimoire for this one:

"The Chalice/Grail - origin of ideas (mushroom???) origin of Imagination and with it, Creativity."

This card represents a new idea or path as the outcome of an ordeal. Whereas The Fool is fresh, this is a beginning rooted in what came before, hence the chariot imagery. A vehicle, which can also be a door or method of transport.  Seeing this means you should get excited, but you should also recognize that change is coming.  

Crowley offers this, which I quite like:

"The canopy of the Chariot is the night-sky blue of Binah <THe Great Mother>. The pillars are the four pillars of the Universe, the regiment of Tetragrammaton. The scarlet wheels represent the original energy of Geburah which causes the revolving motion."

It's good to encounter passages like this in The Book of Thoth, as so much of it is nonsensical, Crowley talking a lot to convince everyone how much he knows that we don't. He also equates this card to Cancer, and while I don't traffic in Astrology, he continues, "Cancer is the cardinal sign of the element of Water, and represents the first keen onrush of that element." This fits my own interpretation, so I wanted to double-down and mention it here. 

Desecration of Souls!

 

Working on a short story on Nosleep that has a very "Satanic Panic" vibe, so allow me to perpetuate that mood with some classic Mercyful Fate!

The first chapter of I Found Evidence My Parents Were Members of a Satanic Cult is up HERE. Check it out and throw up the horns when King belts out those infamous lines:

Copulation in the night 

Two shadows upon a grave 

Screams of pleasure, 

Screams of pain 

Young lovers you must be insane 

It's desecration of souls 

In their holy lair 

So I say again stay away 

It's desecration of souls

No on-the-grave fuckin' in my story (yet), but this definitely helps offset the otherwise all-encompassing Christmas vibe as we celebrate the holiday early this Saturday.

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Watch:

I had not heard of Grafted or Co-writer/Director Sasha Rainbow before Bloody Disgusting posted about it yesterday, but without even watching this trailer, I am in!

It's no secret that Body Horror was already on the rise as a subgenre when Coralie Fargeat's The Substance blew everyone's doors off earlier this year; will it go the route of the Zombie and Possession themes and proliferate to an unsustainable level? Hopefully not, but if that happens, it's still a ways down the road. Until then, let's sit back and watch through our fingers as filmmakers bring us 

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Playlist:

Pixies - Doolittle

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Grandy Ducy - Petite Fours

Nothing - Guilty of Everything

Circle Jerks - Group Sex

Suicidal Tendencies - Eponymous

Genevieve Artadi - Forever Forever

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

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

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Deftones - Ohms

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Adorable Vendetta

 

I Watched Nowhere again last night, this time with K, and it turns out it was Director Greg Araki's birthday! Wow, I guess it's kind of kismet that I fall in love with this movie now. Such an amazing soundtrack - the CD for which hauls a cool $99 on eBay - and of the countless incredible songs and artists represented - minus hole and filter - "Vendetta" by Adorable really stands out. A bit of research shows that this band kind of got swallowed by time and the digitization of the music industry because aside from people posting this on YouTube, it is, ahem, Nowhere to be found.

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Watch:

I followed Nowhere with Alex Cox's Repo Man. A classic, yes, but one I've only ever watched one other time, and that was in 2018! 

I don't know how I missed out on Repo Man in the 80s, 90s, 00s, and most of the 10s - hell, I saw Cox's Straight to Hell more than a decade before I saw this - but Repo Man made a pretty deep impression on me upon first viewing and more than lived up to that watching it again. Perfect double feature with Nowhere.

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NCBD:

This week's pull:

Every issue I've read of Epitaphs From the Abyss has been fantastic, so really looking forward to continuing the anthology vibes this month!

Si Spurrier's Hellblazer epic comes to a close, and yes, while we knew Morpheus would be appearing, I didn't expect to see the pre-Daniel version. Can't wait to see what this is about and how this tale concludes.

Not super jazzed about this book, but I'm still going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Seriously though - put Baroness back in the tight black leather already, will ya?

This cover instantly sells this issue. I think Jason Aaron's TMNT has now moved to monthly, but I knew that was coming. So far, I'm not going anywhere.

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Playlist:

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Pixies - Doolittle

Pixies - Come On Pilgrim

Pixies - Bossonova

Chat Pile - Cool World

The Los Angeles League of Musicians - LA LOM

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

The Soft Moon - Criminal

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Today's card for study is the Prince of Cups:

"Emotional depths honed by intellect."

The airy aspect of water, or the intellectual side of emotion. What's that you say? "Intellectual side of emotion sounds like an oxymoron?"

Yes.

That said, this card should be taken as a reminder to strive to not let our emotions get the better of us, or a clue that our reason is clouded by emotion.