Justin Hamline's The House With Dead Leaves Out Today!!!

Out today! Justin Hamline's cinematic score for a Giallo that only exists in his head, The House With Dead Leaves!!! Justin was gracious enough to allow me access to this ahead of release, and I can tell you that this is a lush, imaginative masterpiece that instantly became a daily listen. Fantastic mood-setter for the YA Giallo Novel I'm currently writing!

I've mentioned here previously that I am kind of predisposed to appreciate scores for films that don't exist due to a long-standing love of all things Barry Adamson. When I finish writing a book and prep it for release, I try to put a playlist in the back as an accompanying feature, but what I haven't managed to make good on yet is the half-finished scores I have sitting on an old hard drive. I made a conscious decision in 2015 to focus almost solely on writing, so for nearly ten years, all of my musical 'urges' get trasnmuted into writing fuel. These cinematic emanations aren't exactly for films that don't exist, they're just for stories that don't tangibly exist yet, which I'm betting is how Justin would describe The House with Dead Leaves as well. I've long wanted to release a score and a novel simultaneously, and reveling in the sonic joys of Justin's accomplishment has put that back in mind (though something like that probably won't be happening any time soon). 

The takeaway here is that with the imagery Justin's been peppering his social media accounts with to accompany this album, I feel I can almost see his movie, as though the horrific events the music buoys are playing out nearby, on the other side of a thick wall of fog. Doesn't that sound almost exactly like something from a Giallo film?

Well played, sir. Well played.

---

---

---

Watch:

Finally! Evil Season 4 announced as arriving in May! This is one of the most low-key fantastic Horror shows ever made, in my opinion, and I couldn't be happier that it's finally coming back with the long-awaited Fourth - and final - season!

 

Regarding the cancellation, I was under the impression - perhaps erroneously - that this season was meant to be the last regardless. Either way, Paramount ordering an extra four episodes to help wrap everything up definitely helps. Can't wait.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

The Veils - Total Depravity

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digipak)

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

Fabula - Lost in Stars

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Ween - Chocolate and Cheese

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars

Fvunerals - Let the Earth Be Silent

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Nobuhiko Morino - Versus OST

---

---

---

Card:

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

• King of Pentacles - Earthly Intellect

• Eight of Swords - Transformation of relationship (status quo)

• Nine of Pentacles - Earthly accomplishment

Lots of Earthly concerns represented in the cards this morning. That makes sense - money was a free-floating variable for a few days as I scrambled to get my taxes done and a few unexpected trips to the Emergency Room/Urgent Care piled up over the course of last weekend (everyone is fine). Having the Eight of Swords bisect the two nods to Malkuth looks to me as an indication that a deep-seated perspective on Earthly concerns (again, money) is about to change. What's that mean, exactly? Well, I'm hot and cold with spending, and I think it's a good time to go cold again and amass larger savings. That's a goal K and I have discussed recently (we even began calls with a free money-manager person through her work), a week ago today, actually, so this Pull makes sense in terms of a reminder to 'stay on the path.'

Jim Williams - Possessor

I can feel a viewing of Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor on the horizon. I've become quite entranced by the score, which I'd always enjoyed in the context of the film but hadn't completely warmed to as a stand-alone listen. That ended yesterday, when I played the album - and this track in particular - over several times. 

---

---

---

NCBD:

It's New Comic Book Day! Here are my picks:

The final issue. I still haven't been able to physically acquire issue three, although Mike Shin has a copy for me at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort. Since I never subbed Syzmon Kurdanski's Blood Commandment at Rick's, it's a toss-up whether or not I actually bring issue four home today. If not, I'll call Mike. 

Not going to lie; I cannot wait to read this issue just based on the cover alone. Something about the image of Lorna Dane in her father's armor just feels like, yeah, something I've always wanted but never put into words or even coherent thought.

James Tynion IV and Josh Hixon's The Deviant continues to spiral deeper into a psycho-social mystery that, although we already know who (or what) the killer is, carries a 

I still can't believe we're three issues from the end. Damn. Looking around online, I've yet to see any concrete information as far as whether the new Jason Aaron series will continue the continuity built up over 150 glorious issues of this series or if it will just restart everything. Hoping for the former, afraid for the latter. 

The cover says it all. I never thought I'd see Optimus Prime wearing Megatron's Canon arm, but then, between everything we've seen in the pages of Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers and Joshua Williamson's Cobra Commander, I guess I should now just be prepared for a lot of surprises when it comes to these two long-time properties.

---

---

---

Watch:

I showed K Destroy All Neighbors yesterday. She loved it. So did I; totally holds up upon second viewing.

 

The vocoder hostage negotiation scene is one of the funniest things I've seen in recent years. Directed by Josh Forbes and written by Charles A. Pieper, along with Jared Logan and Mike Benner, this one really arrived at the right time for me. Horror-comedy is a favorite when it's done right, and this does it exactly right. There are so many '90s Oddball vibes in here. Then, of course, factor in Gabriel Bartalos, and you have a straight-up win all around. The prosthetics on Alex Winter are INSANE, and he does an outstanding job acting through them. In fact, there's a fantastic article in the latest Fangoria about this that really peeled back the curtain on some of the production (though not too much to eclipse the overall film). 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Tears for the Dying - Memories

Justin Hamline - The House with Dead Leaves

Psychetect - Extremism

Morphine - The Night

---

---

---

Card:

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

• 0: The Fool

• Eight of Cups

• XIII: Death

A journey starts and almost immediately fails and ends. Rapid prototyping? I have to think about this one for a bit, as depending on how I choose to interpret it, this may be advice on opting out of a project I was planning on releasing soon. I don't feel like said project 'failed,' although I did think it would be done by now. That said, I took a huge jump forward with it, then relaxed because, honestly, I have really lost the thread with Writing since December. I just didn't get very much done in January while I was in L.A., and it's only yesterday that I began actively carving out a workspace for it. 

Tears for the Dying - Lost Girls

I found Tears for the Dying last night watching Alice Maio Mackay's Bad Girl Boogey, which just hit Shudder. This track grabbed me the moment it began to play onscreen, and it was just with quite a gusto I made my way over to Apple Music and downloaded the entire album, which I have yet to play, but am looking forward to this morning.

---

---

---

Watch:

As stated above, I threw on Alice Maio Mackay's Bad Girl Boogey last night and was instantly blown away. This film has such a DIY feel, but also, it feels so much like a Video Nasty from back in the 80s. 

The opening setup and kills, which take place over the course of many "Halloweens" and involve different groups of people are brutal and stem from a creepy, blue-collar Occult underground that just works for me in so many ways.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Stereophonics - Just Enough Education to Perform

The Veils - ... And Out of the Void

Cake - Fashion Nugget

Cake - Motorcade of Generosity

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

---

---

---

Card:

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

---

• 0: The Fool

• VIII: Strength

• Seven of Cups

---

The journey here is one of Strength, or rekindling it. Victory is assured, or at least likely, but the first steps have to be taken. I'm afraid this pain in my knees is not going to go away; that would suck. I feel an apathy toward myself has crept in around the edges of my life; I'm so focused on the things I focus on (the elements of the world that tend to populate these pages), that it's difficult to muster the reserves to focus on myself. Because, of course, "something always comes along to save the Simpson children." Only, that's not true, is it? Just because I'm sitting here typing, healthy now, doesn't mean I will be in a year, a month or even a day. 

Chelsea Wolfe - The Liminal

 

My copy of Chelsea Wolfe's She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She arrived on Saturday and I managed to hold off listening to it until the precise criteria I insisted upon were met - Saturday night after recording the latest episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Murderboad - A True Detective Night Country Discussion, I placed the beautiful colored vinyl on the turntable in my office, smoked a quarter of a joint and laid out on the floor and let the sounds wash over me. This one's an immediate shoo-in for my top ten list this year. It's both similar and completely unlike anything Ms. Wolfe has done previously; similar, because her voice is unmistakable; different in that there are a lot of what I can only call "Industrial Trip-Hop" elements in these songs. 

I know, I know... it's not bad enough we subdivide music into oft-confusing subgenres, but now you're creating hybrids of those subgenres? Well... there's just no other way to say it. 

Industrial is appropriate because alot of the songs have a mechanical feeling to their percussion or groove, Trip Hop because the closest thing I can compare of the arranging on this album to is Portishead or Massive Attack. I can split hairs all day long on the sound, but believe me, this is a spectacular piece of work from one of the most interesting artists working in music.

---

---

---

Watch:

I had the revelatory experience of watching Jennifer Reeder's 2019 Knives and Skin on Saturday night. Here's a trailer that I have vetted; it gives nothing away (also doesn't do this film any kind of justice, but you really can't encapsulate Knives and Skin in a trailer anymore than you can a Lynch film):

Ms. Reeder has been slowly moving up my radar ever since I watched 2020's Night's End hit Shudder back in the fall of 2022. I posted about her most recent film Perpetrator a few weeks ago, and that viewing, combined with this latest one, seals the deal: she's easily my latest "favorite directors." There's a moment in this trailer where the pull quote says, "Twin Peaks meets Donnie Darko." That's not exactly right, but it's not exactly wrong, either, and it's close enough to tell you why I like it so much and whether or not you have any hope of connecting with it. All I can say is K and I were absolutely mesmerized while watching.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

David Bowie - Black Star

David Bowie - The Next Day

David Bowie - Outside

David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

Turnstile - Glow On

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Grace Jones - Warm Leatherette (single)

Daemien Frost - Corpus Demo

Donny Benét - Konichiwa (single)

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

The Veils - Total Depravity

---

---

---

Card:

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

• VIII: Strength

• Four of Pentacles

• Knight of Wands

A lot of strength and foundation, which I feel like has been under assault in our house the last few days. Took K to the emergency room on Thursday night around midnight (she's fine), took our cat Sweetie to the pet urgent care on Saturday (we think she's fine), and something popped in my right knee that has left me in intermittent crippling pain since Saturday morning. All this, juxtaposed with this Pull, tells me we need to finally ante up and put our health back into the actively attending to column.

New Music From Beth Gibbons!!!

 

Holy smokes - new music from Beth Gibbons! Interesting synchronicity, as I cracked out Henryk Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs for the first time in a while. Gibbons' voice is legendary, and I'm into pretty much anything she does, so the fact that this new solo album, Lives Outgrown, drops on May 17th on Domino Records is very good news indeed. Pre-order HERE.

Man, this sounds a lot like something that could have fit into Portishead's Third. Love that!!!

---

---

---

Watch:

I want to watch this trailer for Late Night With the Devil SO F*&KING BAD. Not going to do it, though.

Opening in theatres on March 22nd, this is one that, if my local Regal doesn't get it, I will travel for. I've really grown to love David Dastmalchian - his performance in The Last Voyage of the Demeter blew me away, as I did not even realize it was him until well after the movie ended - and I've just generally become a fan of everything he does. His comic Count Crowley - about a TV Horror Host - makes me incredibly happy (what I've read of it, that is), and his brief appearance in Rob Savage's The Boogeyman ranked as possibly the best performance in a movie full of them. Couple all that with the little bit I know about Late Night with the Devil's concept (not much), and I'm practically frothing at the mouth for this one. No reason then, to let possible oversaturation of the trailer ruin anything for me.

 

---

---

---

Read:

I am happy to report I was totally blown away by the first issue of Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell and Jordie Bellaire's new Hellblazer series, John Constantine Hellblazer: Dead in America.

Full disclosure: I haven't read the previous two volumes of Spurrier's Hellblazer. In fact, I haven't really read any new John Constantine material since, well, long before the original Vertigo series ended. I've picked up a few number ones since the title was brought back under the "Sandman Universe" umbrella - the new sub-heading for DC's Black Label that basically indicates, "Former Vertigo Glory Days Title," because I definitely think Constantine - while I LOVE the character - is really only done a disservice by an ongoing title. So I'm reading Dead in America based on that idea, that I haven't checked in on a solely JC-focused title in years and am about due for a fix. This proved perfect because it incorporates Dream of the Endless in a story setup that takes us all the way back to John's encounter with the previous iteration of Dream in the very first Sandman storyline. Very cool way to bring things back around and give it a nostalgic twist that felt more story-driven than story-derivative. 

This looks to be a four-issue series, and I'll be sticking around for the duration, so you'll definitely hear more about this one. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Various Artists - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

Beth Gibbons - Henryk Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs

---

---

---

Card:

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

• King of Wands

• Ace of Swords

•XVIII - The Moon

The King (or Prince in Thoth) of Wands is the Airy aspect of Fire - Drive and motivation. The Ace of Swords (what my mind keeps seeing as the Ace of Spades this morning) is a Breakthrough. Enlightenment. seeing Clearly or the intellect as a bridge to the unconscious mind. The Moon is something occulted, i.e. what am I not seeing. All of this is commentary on the last 12 hours and money situations, not bad, just seeing things clearly (which I don't always do in regards to the cheddar).

Justin Hamline - A Veil For Three Sisters

Justin Hamline is a guy I know only through his Instagram profile and some interactions through that platform; a like-minded Horror/Synth/Punk fan, I no longer remember how I came across him, but we have similar interests and ended up following one another for a couple years before I realized he was also a pretty freakin' awesome musician. Apparently, he took a break for a while but came back recently and has been releasing material left and right. Next up for Justin is the soundtrack to a Giallo that only exists in his head - The House With Dead Leaves! This is the kind of project I love, a la Barry Adamson's first albums; not just music but the story that goes with it in the artist's mind. I'm really digging this stuff - here's the full track:

Really digging this and can't wait to hear the finished product. The House With Dead Leaves drops next Friday, and I have a feeling I'll be incorporating an edible and a nice block of time to just sit in front of my big-ass stereo speakers and take the journey Justin has mapped out for us. 

---

---

---

Watch:

There are two new Horror flicks coming to theatres this week, and I'm going to try and see them both!* Here's the trailer to Alan Cumming's Out of Darkness:

 

As usual, I watched about five seconds of this - just enough to see the set-up that the film takes place in 43, 000 BC, and I stopped it. That's enough to make me interested, and from here I'd just rather go in blind.

---

---

---

Read:

As I mentioned in this week's NCBD segment, I picked up the first issue of the new Ram V/Laurence Campbell Futuristic Neo Noir The One Hand yesterday purely on a lark. 

After reading it, I am super excited for this book. But not only this book, because there is a second, complimentary series by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar coming on February 21st! 

The Six Fingers takes place in the same Blade Runner-esque Future metropolis, Neo Novna, and based on the title and what I know after reading issue one of The One Hand doesn't just tie in but possibly completes the story in the first book. 

Image is just killing it right now. There's an article Image has up on their website HERE that talks about this a little more in-depth. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Raspberry Bulbs - Before the Age of Mirrors

Justin Hamline - A Veil for the Three Sisters (Un velo per tre sorelle) (single)

Windhand - Eternal Return

Donny Benét - The Don

Amigo the Devil - Your Until the War is Over (pre-release singles)

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (pre-release singles)

Mannequin Pussy - Patience

Mannequin Pussy - Romantic

T. Rex - The Slider

---

---

---

Card:

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

• King of Swords

• VIII: Strength

• IV: The Emperor

Man, I see a lot of that Tony Iommi King of Swords in this deck! Does that make Iommi my spirit animal?

I'll tell you right off the bat, what I see here on a very surface, "what do the illustrations tell me" way two things I've been thinking a lot about. Two things that used to be a big part of my life but no longer really are: Guitar and Magick. I've been feeling a tug back to picking up an instrument, but I have several unfinished writing projects at the moment (one very close to completion and release, one a few months out). This is the struggle - stay focused. So, while it would definitely be more in my current inclination to read this one as telling me to go ahead and follow that tug, I'm actually going to look at it a different way - have the strength to recognize that the King of Swords - in Thoth the Prince - is a card that, by Crowley's own interpretation, indicates lots of good ideas but an unstable purpose. That's why I'm seeing this so much! Finish the interpretation off with The Emperor's nod toward linear thinking, and I see that this is in no small voice telling me to figure my shit out, commit and finish. 

Amigo the Devil - Once Upon a Time at Texaco (Pt. 1)

 

New music from Amigo the Devil's forthcoming album Yours Until the War is Over, out February 23rd on Liars Club Records. Pre-order HERE. 

Interestingly enough, there is no "Pt. 2" on the album. Hahaha. Leave 'em in suspense, eh? Brilliant.

 

---

---

---

NCBD:

Short week, which is great when you consider that I haven't yet read everything from my four-week pull I picked up last week.

Really digging this Bloodrik series by Andrew Krahnke. Sad to see it go after only three issues. I know issue one sold out and had a second print run. Hopefully, that bodes well for a continuation (or anything from Mr. Krahnke) down the road.

Good lord - I feel as though it's been months since the first issue of Count Crowley: Mediocre Monster Hunter hit the stands. And in all that time, I still haven't completed my run of the second Crowley series or acquired the first. Series Writer/Creator David Dastmalchian is a heck of a busy guy, what's my excuse? (I guess my excuse is I'm a pretty busy guy, too).

New, three-issue crime comic from Ram V and Laurence Campbell. Crime Noir that might have a SciFi bent to it. I'm not really sure, but then again, I love going in blind. 

Great thing about picking up four weeks of comics last week, is it shortens the wait between issues! I just read X-Men 30 and loved it, so here we go again. Now with more Nimrod!

---

---

---

Watch:

Rose Glass's Saint Maud was one of the movies that suffered the most from the jilted release schedule COVID caused, and although I did eventually get to see it - well after what should have been its theatrical release - the entire time I sat in front of my television I just kept thinking how much better the film would have been served by a big-screen viewing. 

I get the same "Cinematic" vibes from this trailer for Glass's new film, the upcoming Love Lies Bleeding. I know they released a new trailer this morning, however, I'm not watching that. I only really saw this one because it played before something I saw in the theatre recently. Good news is it really only solidified my goal of seeing this in the theatre:

The vibe I get from everything I know about Love Lies Bleeding so far reminds me a bit of the Cohen Brothers' Blood Simple. I'm not entirely sure why I say that, but there's a grime here that harkens back to that fabled debut. Whether that's entirely shy of the mark or not, I'm really looking forward to this one, which hits theatres on March 8th.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Melvins - Working the Ditch (single)

Melvins - Gluey Porch Treatment

Turnstile - Glow On

Turnstile - Nonstop Feeling

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Pixies - Indie Cindy

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Yerusalem - The Sublime

Assembly Line People Program - Eponymous EP

Justin Hamline - A Veil for the Three Sisters (Un velo per tre sorelle) (single)

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

---

---

---

Card:

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

• Eight of Cups

• Queen of Wands

• Three of Pentacles

In the Crowley/Harris Thoth Deck, the Eight of Cups is "Indolence," and can carry with it a connotation of low or lacking energy/vitality. This is a "Change," and reading these cards here as such, the transition to the Queen of Wands - The Watery Aspect of Fire, I draw on the "tame thyself" interpretation I'd long ago written in the Grimoire. Finally, Three of Pentacles suggests balance. Taken together, all of this suggests something of a crossroads. One of the things I'd hoped my month-long work trip would catalyze is a total change to my at-home protocols. I need to get over having to drive out to a coffee shop after work to write. I can easily use some of the built-in downtime of my WFH scenario to make incremental progress on any number of projects.