2019: May 31st Dark Season 2 Trilogy Trailer

Just under a month until the second season of Netflix's Dark drops and they reveal it's going to be a finite story done in three seasons? I really couldn't think of better news for this show. Dark already feels extremely symmetrical, so it's awesome to hear that symmetry goes all the way through into its DNA. And why do I get the feeling that the 'Everything is connected' line is going to be especially true for Dark? Can't wait!

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Tough decision for this evening: Godzilla: King of Monsters, Swamp Thing or the Deadwood movie? All three premiere today; the very definition of First World problems.



Or



Or



Whatever our decision, in preparation, I signed up for my 7-Day Free Trial of the DCU app through Firestick last night. Really had to fight the urge to start Doom Patrol, but that has to wait a little bit; we still have two episodes of Ozark left to watch. The general plan is binge Doom Patrol and keep the subscription for the duration of Swamp Thing. Also, I noticed the 2015 Constantine show is on there; not a perfect adaptation of the character storywise - as I remember the episodes range from fantastic to terrible - but Matt Smith is perfect casting as John Constantine, and from the few episodes I did watch back when it aired, there were some gems. So while we have the DCU, might as well take advantage and re-watch and finally finish that series as well.


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Playlist from 5/30:

How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Bloody Hammers - Lovely Sort of Death
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Jaye Jayle -No Trail and Other Unholy Paths
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Isaac Hayes - Tough Guys OST
Marilyn Manson - AntiChrist Superstar
Monolord - Rust
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Sigur Rós - Variations on Darkness

**

Card of the day:

Old paradigms dissolve, new ideas shape the future. My Beta Reader is all but finished with Shadow Play. The art's done (I'll reveal it here soon); all I need to do is one last concentrated read through and it's go time!

2019: May 30th - 3 Days Until NOS4A2 Premieres!

I just realized that AMC's adaptation of Joe Hill's NOS4A2 premieres this Sunday. How the hell did I miss this trailer!?! I can't wait for the show, as the book is probably my favorite Joe Hill novel. Well... Heart-Shaped Box might be neck-and-neck with it, but they're both exceptional, outside-the-box horror fiction.

Of course, this comes at a super busy watch-time, as K and I are still working our way through Ozark; on Season 2 now and it's really getting dark. Literally. I noticed last night that, where Season 1 was had a very blue pallet, Season 2 is shot extremely dark; almost darker than anything I've seen in this level of show. Not a complaint though, because it works! It's a tonal accompaniment to the characters' descent into their maelstrom that reminds me of Paul Schrader's Autofocus, which begins very pastel and slowly grows into darker and darker hues as Bob Crane's descent into addiction. Boy does it work. And Friday I'll be signing up for the DCU app for the duration of Swamp Thing. Also on the slate for that subscription window is a binge on Doom Patrol. And now we're adding NOS4A2! This might be the very definition of First World Problems, not having enough time to watch all the things I've been looking forward to, but that's what I come here to talk about; I'll leave politics and the rapid decline of civilization for limited real-world encounters, because I'm pretty fucking sick of seeing it discussed online!

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New episode of The Horror Vision is up! Topics of discussion include but are not limited to Mike Mendez's The Convent, Emma Tammi's The Wind, Pledge, The Nest and Valencourt Books' Paperbacks from Hell subscription service, the newest installment of Mortal Combat, and a whole lot more!

Apple
Spotify
Google Play

Or just catch us on our website, The Horror Vision.com

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Watchlist from the last few days has been Ozark Season 2, David Cronenberg's Rabid, and actually, last weekend I had a viewing of Cronenberg's Videodrome, one of my all-time favorite films.

**

Playlist from 5/28:

Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
Wasted Theory - Warlords of the New Electric
Wasted Theory - Defenders of the Riff
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Primus - Frizzle Fry

Playlist from 5/29:

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Natural Snow Buildings - Night Coercion into the Company of Witches
Numenorean - Adore
Anthrax - Persistence of Time

**

No card today.

2019: May 28th Earth - Datura's Crimson Veils

Full Upon Her Burning Lips, the new album by seminal Doom/Stoner/Grunge band Earth dropped last Friday, and it's fantastic. First track, Datura's Crimson Veil is a one of the best lead-ins of the year. I was late to the party with Earth; 2014's Primitive and Deadly was the first album I got into by the band. That record had a very particular meaning to me at the time of its release, and the sound of Dylan Carlson's guitar on that record is forever ingrained in my psyche in a very positive way. It's no surprise then, as Full Upon... feels like a direct follow-up to Primitive (not necessarily a given with a band that has been around this long and reinvented itself as time has gone by; think Swans), I was immediately taken with the new album's sound. You can order directly from Earth's label Sargent House from anywhere in the world via their shop's web portal HERE.

**

I finally dragged myself to the coffeeshop on Sunday and put in a solid couple of hours writing. It wasn't the most productive day, but the first day back after a hiatus never is. That's not what it's about; you have to re-establish the ritual and the inertia. Then yesterday knocked me back a peg. No problem, because as I write this I already feel as though today will be a productive day, I'll simply have to work for it.


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Playlist from 5/26:

Mastodon - Once More Round the Sun
Minsk - The Crash and the Draw
Minsk & Zatokrev - Bigod
The Cure - Disintegration


Playlist from 5/27:

Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours
The Doors - LA Woman
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
James Brown - Hell

Card of the day:

With so much time off from writing, I'm frustrated by too many ideas, by being over-worked, and losing sight of my ability to organize. I have to take the first steps to introduce order - in this case the ritual of writing - and just suck it up until I am 100% back on track.

2019: Numenorean - And Nothing Was the Same

My good friend Tori recently turned me onto Canadian band Atmospheric Black Metal band Numenorean. Now, those qualifiers I placed before the band's name - which I culled straight off the tags on their Bandcamp - approach a description of Numenorean, but they certainly do not define the band. The new album Adore, recorded over the span of three years and released recently on Seasons of Mist, is an exploration of the crossroads of so very many different musical styles within the ever-widening sky of 'Metal' and 'Shoegaze'. Numenorean have a very unique sound that encompasses elements of so many ideas. The first two tracks have definite moments that make me flashback to The Cure's Disintegration. I hear Deafheaven, Fenn, old school Iron Maiden, Second Wave Black Metal, etc, etc. The point is, the record is fantastic and if you agree, spread the word!

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A little over a quarter of the way through Gemma Files' Experimental Film, the book has slipped its spell over me completely. There's nothing genre here; back in my bookstore days, I would imagine this shelved under Fiction/Lit instead of Horror. There's nothing wrong with genre. In fact I love it, read it, and write it. However, there is a different feel to more literary works that utilize Genre ideas. Experimental Film is one of those. Files brings you into her First Person Narrator's world, rife with the onset of Middle Age, an Autistic Son, and a career path that requires a lot of spec work and not much in the way of compensation. This of course complicates the other aspects of her life. The over-arching narrative drive, that there is an isolated house in Northern Canada where a millionaire's wife may have used early, highly volatile Silver Nitrate Film to accomplish Occult Phenomena in the  early Twentieth Century, is seeping in around the edges, and how any of the former relates to the latter, other than it's our Narrator's obsession and attempt at making a mark in the Academic world researching it, is unclear at this point. What is clear, is that the dark things I can feel on the horizon of this novel will occur in the same clearly written and beautifully rendered examination of occurrence as the daily ups and downs of the Narrator's life. Call it a slow burn if you want; Experimental Film reminds me more than a little bit of the work of Bret Easton Ellis, and I am enjoying it very, very much.

**

Watchlist from 5/25 was the remainder of Season One of Ozark, on into the first two episodes of Season Two. Jesus, this show is strong; it remains to be seen if Season Two will weave so many dramatic plot points together as Season One, but it's certainly off to a good start.

**

Playlist from 5/25:

Sunn O))) - Life Metal
The Veils - Total Depravity
The Yellow House - Refurbished
The Pogues - Red Roses For Me
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Isis - Celestial
Ghost - Prequelle

**

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "The Lunar Pull on seemingly unconnected processes." Well, we're currently in Waning Gibbous, the first phase after a full moon. So we're slowly moving beyond revelation. Also, this card has several 'face value' applications, the most obvious of which in terms of Magical Significance, is the Scarlet Lady riding the Seven-Headed Beast of Revelations. This is the destruction of what came before, and the approach to a new paradigm. There is also a transition from Severity (Geburah) to Mercy (Chesed). But really, all this is just me playing an endless guitar solo; showing off, because I don't have any idea how this card applies to me at the moment.

Or maybe I do...

2019: May 25th

Deep, murky dreams last night, the kind that follow you right up to the door that leads back across the wall of sleep. I woke up before my 6:00 AM alarm feeling the need to begin the day with Sunn O)))'s new album Life Metal, which I'd yet to spin since its release (was holding out for the vinyl). So far, these tracks actually scare me a little bit, which is awesome. There's something to the sound this time, something Steve Albini no doubt helped add to the thick, rolling fog metal of this behemoth. Sunn O))) actually sound more massive, if that is possible. Life Metal would make a perfect soundtrack to a re-read I'm planning for John Langan's The Fisherman, a book I had some issues with as far as execution, but which still stands as probably the scariest novel I've ever read, and has stayed with me on an almost daily basis for two years now.

Speaking of great Weird/Horror fiction, I was unbelievably happy to see Nathan Ballingrud announce on Twitter yesterday that his first collection of short stories, North American Lake Monsters, was just picked up by Hulu as an anthology series. Mr. Ballingrud's continued success is well-earned, and it's nice to see that happen.

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The Watchlist from 5/24 was the final episode of Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In on Shudder. Joe Bob played Blood Harvest and Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, and while Hello Mary Lou is definitely better than the first Prom Night (its affiliation with the franchise apparently decided after the fact), I didn't much care for either film. However, that is totally not the point here. I watched these movies for Joe Bob's interruptions, and as always, he delivered. The Last Drive-In prom at the end of the episode was especially sweet and funny; can't wait for season 2, and I definitely find myself hoping there's a holiday marathon in the interim.

**

Playlist from 5/24:

Muggs - Dust

Pelican - Cold Hope (Pre-release single)

Pelican - Midnight and Mescaline (Pre-release single)

Faith No More - Angel Dust

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave

Melvins - Houdini

The Veils - Total Depravity

Card of the day:

Probably my favorite card in the Sword suite, this tells me I need to be very methodical today. I work, need very desperately to write again (still sick, still exhausted), and have plans to tape a new episode of The Horror Vision tonight. That's a lot to fit in feeling like I do. I'll need to be resourceful and above all focused.

2019: May 24th - New Pelican Track!

On June 7th, Southern Lord is releasing the newest album from Chicago Post-Metal group Pelican, and from the two tracks we've heard so far, Nighttime Stories looks like it is a serious contender for my top ten this year. I love the texture of this track; thick, sludgy, but not without melody and a certain swing in its step. You can pre-order the album HERE.

**

Two more episodes of Ozark season one down last night, so that means two to go, then I can finally begin Season Two. This show really holds up on second viewing, and I'm pretty sure its dark, foreboding tone, exceptionally well-written characters, and left-of-center plot twists will continue to impress me; Ozark is the kind of show that already feels destined for greatness.

**
Final episode of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder tonight, but, in case you haven't heard, it will be back. In my excitement, I looked up some old clips:



**

Playlist from 5/23:

The Cure - Disintegration
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Faith No More - King for a Day
Faith No More - Angel Dust

Card of the day:

I've never been a fan of this card. Frankly, it has always visually been intertwined with a former lover, and I'm one who usually shuts the door on the past pretty hard, so I'm never really enthused to receive anything in the way of reminders. But last year at some point, this card came up a couple times in close proximity, and in discussing it with my good friend Missi, she put something to me I'd never stopped to consider; basically, why? Why did the Queen of Wands have to be what I had come to think of it as? And this morning, free from any pull of the past, I uncover this card and think, "That's not what this is at all."

So then, the question remains, what is the Queen of Thoth to me?

Let's start basic. From the Grimoire: "Emotional Intelligence." Well, that in and of itself is sometimes as difficult to find as the Dodo; the waters of emotion run rapid when they run best, and sluiced through the right tributary, we may find it very difficult to apply any guidance to the rush toward conclusion. So then, when I pull this, especially today, where my day-to-day gig at the biorepository feels a bit out of control (mother business expanding exponentially constantly), I feel as though the eyes of this fiery lady are telling me to watch my mouth, which runs often, loud, and considerably unchecked at work.

Also, there's the related idea of the 'Consciousness in Spirit,' which I see pop up online when scouting around for other facets of this card. Consciousness in Spirit equates to Intensity of Purpose, which I have absolutely lacked for going on a week now, as work as been difficult and some passing bug has kept me feeling sick and run down for most of the week, even now when I'm through the worst of it. I read this as a need to get my ass back in gear; for the past two weeks, I've had a fantastic regiment of after-work writing and yoga going almost every day, then Sunday I woke up sick and ever since, I've haven't done either. The little bit of yoga I forced myself to do last night ended up making me feel amazing, and that's as good as any other reason to re-focus and re-acquire that Intensity of Purpose.

2019: May 23rd - New Drab Majesty!

A busy work schedule and the exhaustion that comes with being sick pretty much decimated my last few days; normally these would be two separate entries, but there are big things happening at my day job and I've been unable to take any time off, in spite of feeling like absolute crap. In that time, a lot has surfaced. The second track off Drab Majesty's forthcoming third album being one of the most eagerly anticipated (pre-order that record HERE if you haven't already).

The other most eagerly anticipated item that dropped was the first trailer for the ninth film by Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood:



Other than Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown, I've seen all of QT's films in the theatre. This is be no exception.

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The trade paperback for Nightscape Press's Ashes and Entropy recently won the This is Horror Award for Anthology of the year award; I'd missed the boat on this one until yesterday when I received an email about it going on sale in the Publisher's webstore. I ordered my copy as soon as I saw the contributing authors list and cannot wait to dig into the contents. And that cover!

**

We're set to do another episode of The Horror Vision this coming Saturday, and in looking back at everything I've watched over the last month or so, I realized I really need to start a daily 'watchlist' section on these pages. So below is the first, which is really more of a catch-all for everything we've watched since Sunday. It's a lot, because as I mentioned above, K and I have both been sick since last Sunday, and although I've not missed any work, I've been leaving early and spending most of my time at home in bed, trying to beat this thing as quickly as possible.

Ozark, Season 1 episodes 1-5

Barry, Season 1 episodes 1-4

Prom Night - Ugh. Not good. (In retrospect, hoping this isn't one of the two features tomorrow on The Last Drive-In).

CAM - Would have been in my top films of last year had I seen it sooner. Shades of Lost Highway

Gerald's Game - A fantastic adaptation of a stellar Stephen King book. The end Lifetime'd it a bit for me, but totally excusable.

Pandorum -Not bad for Sci Fi horror, but suffers from early 00's spastic editing AND the most overdone twist ever. Seriously folks, what year was Fight Club? It's been done!

Single White Female - I'd never seen this and it's one of K's favorites. Solid 90s Psychological thriller. Would make a great double-feature with Pacific Heights.


Playlist from 5/22:

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
(Lone) Wolf and Cub - May You See Only Sky
Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks
Hall and Oats - Apple Music Essentials
The Cure - Disintegration

No card today.

2019: May 21st: The End Covered by The Raveonettes

I've been on a Ravenettes kick for the first time in a while as of yesterday, and I had completely forgotten that one of my favorite bands covers one of my favorite songs. And their take is great; where the original takes you deep into some sandy cave in the Arabian Desert, the Raveonettes keep the psychedelic aspect but transport it to a subterranean cave that might have been stumbled upon while walking on the beach in some deserted, exotic location. So good.

**

I've already blown through 2/3 of Nathan Ballingrud's short story collection Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, and wanted to slow down on it for a minute. Coincidentally, my friend Maddy and I have been attempting to do a synchronized read of Gemma Files' Experimental Film for quite some time - we got the book a year or so ago - and just haven't had a chance to lock schedules. Well, that changed Saturday, and as of yesterday I'm 60 pages in and HOOKED. I'll talk about this more as I go through it, but as of now, I see what the hype was about.

**

Playlist from 5/20:

Jeff Whalen - Man of Devotion
Jeff Whalen - The Alien Lanes
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart


No card today.

2019: May 20th - Joe Bob Briggs on the Demons "Series"

As we entire the final week of Joe Bob Briggs' inaugural season of The Last Drive-In on Shudder, I thought I'd post one of my favorite clips from the man.

I didn't have cable growing up, so I never got to experience JBB in his previous iterations. I seriously don't think I'd ever even heard of him before Shudder brought him on last summer for that first, 25 hour marathon - the origin of this clip. I've fallen in love fast, though. After last week's episode (The Stuff and Street Trash), I actually threw on his Thanksgiving Dinners of Death to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre with his asides (I missed the beginning of it during the original, Holiday airing). That's something I never thought I'd do - watch a film I respect as much as TCM more for interruptions than the film itself. But JBB is a fount of information, and despite the weakening of a viewings immersions with his interruptions, I've seen TCM many times, but never with the Joe Bob's annotations, which I'd imagine will add quite a bit of context to subsequent viewings, much the same as Brad Shellady's 1988 documentary Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait, which I love as much as the original film.

I'll miss Joe Bob in the off season; there's been something amazing about watching this live every week I'm able, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting these episodes throughout the interim between this and what I hope will be another season somewhere not too far down the line.

**

I was able to catch up on a lot of reading this weekend, and one of the comics I blew through several issues of was Gunning for Hits. This book - published by Image Comics - is fantastic, especially if you're a music lover. Writer Jeff Rougvie brings all the insight from a career producing some of the biggest and most influential bands in history - David Bowie and Elvis Costello to name a few - into the story of Martin Mills, former Government Black Ops Agent turned A&R man, signing bands in 1987 New York. What we have is a brilliantly entertaining and educational book that really shows how the industry used to work, woven in with dramatic situations that range from the on-the-road hi jinx of a newly signed band in the pre-Grunge era (think Noel Monk's 12 Days on the Road) combined with a whirlwind tutorial of the back-room goings on of the men who made the hits. And the back matter alone is worth the price of admission, where Rougvie further hashes out for the laymen just how that giant dinosaur system used to work.

Also, as you can see, there are a lot of allusions in the book for music nerds to get excited over.

**

Playlist from 5/19:

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
Melvins - Stoner Witch
Hall and Oats - Essentials

Card of the day:

Careful consideration; be aware of anxious motivation, and those who might be anxiously motivated.

2019: May 19th - Perry Blackshear's The Rusalka

Earlier today I found myself scouring Nathan Ballingrud's Twitter feed for a drawing a fan drawing he had posted earlier in the month. To say Wounds: Six Stories From the Border of Hell is blowing me away is an understatement; comparisons to Clive Barker's early work are definitely warranted, but Ballingrud has his own style and it's one I love. The Barker comparison, to me, is most earned by way of both author's love of desecrating flesh. I remembered seeing Mr. Ballingrud post this piece of fan art - a drawing of one of the Black Iron Monks from collection's opening story The Atlas of Hell. While searching for the drawing, I found Mr. Ballingrud had posted the teaser for the new film by Perry Blackshear, director of 2015's They Look Like People. Apparently The Rusalka has been re-titled The Siren. Either way, this teaser is creepy as all hell - primarily due to the sound, which is always a huge sell for me - and I can't wait to see this one.

**

Playlist from 5/18:

Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
The Beatles - Abbey Road

**

No card again today. This is a short one, banged out at the start of a solitary hour I've stolen to try and finish the story I began in Spokane, and which, despite the cards telling me to let it rest, won't leave me be.

2019: May 18th - New Mike Patton Project!

Many thanks to Mr. Brown for alerting me to this new Mike Patton project, a collaboration with historic Serge Gainsbourg collaborator Jeanne Claude-Vannier. You can pre-order the album from Ipecac Records HERE; Corpse Flower is scheduled to drop September 13th.


**

I finished Alan Campbell's The Art of Hunting this morning, and now I must HOWL at the fact that there is a third book completed and TOR baulked at publishing it! WTF! Mr. Campbell doesn't have very much of an internet presence to speak of - can't blame anyone on that philosophy - so, although two or three years ago there was an update on the possibility of him releasing the book digitally, there's been nothing since. Please! I need to read the third book NOW!

**

Lacking a third volume of Campbell's Gravedigger Chronicles, I've moved into one of my two most anticipated books of the year: Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories From the Border of Hell. This is the collection that re-publishes Mr. Ballingrud's masterpiece of short, Weird fiction The Visible Filth that I have expounded on often in these pages since I discovered it in late 2015, and adds to it five other short stories that, if the first one is any indication - and I'm sure it is - are brilliant! Such a great time for lover's of dark fiction!

Wounds comes to us just slightly ahead of the first cinematic adaptation of Ballingrud's work, director  Babak Anvari's take on The Visible Filth, also titled Wounds. I believe the arrival of this one-two punch will be the opening salvo on the establishment of Ballingrud as a major force in the modern Horror Lexicon. And that makes me incredibly happy.

**

Playlist from 5/16:

The Cure - Disintegration
Blackwater Holylight - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Bauhaus - In the Flat Fields
Clint Mansell - Out of Blue OST
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
Melvins - Houdini
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Helms Alee - Noctiluca

Playlist from 5/17:

The Cure - Disintegration
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Beach House - 7
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Melvins - Houdini
Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks
Big Business - The Beast You Are

No card today.

2019: May 16th - Blackwater Holylight

One of the bands that Jonathan Grimm turned me onto during his visit last month is Blackwater Holylight. I dug their sound the moment I heard it, but didn't get back around to giving them my full attention until yesterday, when I listened to BWHL's 2018 self-titled album about six times in a row. Fantastic record, kind of sounds like the mythical place where Black Rebel Motorcycle Club meets the Doom scene, if the ladies from Veruca Salt were on back-up vocals. This is one of those every-song-is-great records, so when you have a moment, check it out.

**
Gideon falls continues to blow my freakin' mind every month. I had not anticipated the scope of this book to incorporate anything that happened in this week's issue 13, least of all that the promise made by the cover would bear fruit. Subtle shades of Victoriana (it's not ostentation enough for me to call it full-on Steam Punk, but it has a hint of that delicious flavor, a flavor like most, best used sparingly):

Playlist from 5/15:

Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Faith No More - King for a Day
Beastmilk - Climax
Beastmilk - Use Your Deluge
Grave Pleasures - Dreamcrash
Blackwater Holylight - Eponymous
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock
Tennis System - Pain EP
Misfits - Earth A.D.
Uniform & The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing
Somnium Nox - Apocrypha - EP

**

Card of the day:

Again. Hmm.. So what am I missing?

2019: May 15th Godflesh - Regal

To continue the 'unsung' string I began the other day by posting FNM's Ugly in the Morning, I thought I'd start today with a track from Godflesh's 2001 final album (at the time) Hymns. I love this entire album; some purists disregard later Godflesh for the way Justin K. Broadrick begins to segue into the more ambient, pastoral sound of Jesu. For me, my love of Godflesh isn't about one album or another, but the overall arc. Which, by the way, continues to this day in fine form. Anyway, a great track from an outstanding album.

**

NCBD is a light one. Good deal; saves me some money and drops the latest issue of one of my favorite books in my hands. Win win.

Man, look at that cover! Gorgeous!

**
Playlist from Tuesday, 5/14:

Godflesh - Hymns
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Blut Aus Nord - Odinist: The Destruction of Reason By Illumination
Blut Aus Nord - MoRT
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification
Fenn - Dustwalker
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Jed Kurzel - The Babadook OST

**
Card of the day:

Okay, full disclosure: if you go back a few months, I pulled this card. I'd left it in the deck on purpose, thinking I may find a way to interpret it into my overall, personal theory of reading this deck as a singular quanta of information, instead of as a collection of individual cards. Does that make sense? Maybe not. This is kind of free-form, impromptu logic, but isn't that what Tarot and Divination supposed to be at least partially about? What good is it to memorize 'readings' and definitions for objects that are supposed to represent aspects of our collective and individual unconscious? Anyway, after the first time I pulled this card and logged it here, I didn't draw it again until recently. But now, I've pulled it three times in the last two weeks, and although I'd kind of reversed on logging it here until now, with this new draw, I feel I have to look deeper (I say that sometimes and then don't have time to do it). To begin with, I pulled two more cards after, to try and clarify:

Okay, so it's going to take all - or at least a lot - of my Will to discover something that has been occulted to me. After some digging, it looks as though I will be beginning HERE and, perhaps more interestingly, HERE.

2019: May 14th - Faith No More Live 1997

I've had FNM on the brain of late, specifically King for a Day. Ugly in the Morning has always seemed a classic to me - well, every track on King is a classic, in my opinion at least - but it remains a bit unsung in my head, as in it's never a song I think or discuss first when talking about the band or the album. Contemplating this lead to the idea to post, and searching for the song on youtube this live version came up. Really cool to see this live from back in the day. There are currently conflicting reports of the band working on new music; Patton says they're not and the rest of the guys say they are, so who knows what may one day come down the pipes, if anything. I've recently begun to wonder if we might not see FNM with a different singer again at some point, or new band altogether, comprised of Bottom and Gould, at the very least.

**

Playlist from 5/13:

Godflesh - Pure
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music
ACDC - Highway to Hell
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street OST
Blut Aus Nord - The Odinist

**

Card of the day:

The marriage of two forces/ideas into one. I'll read this as a pat on the back for continuing to develop the different voice and ideas I'm applying to writing Ciazarn, which is wholly outside my comfort zone.

2019: Soviet Soviet Live on KEXP

Soviet Soviet performing Fairy Tale, the lead track from their 2016 album Endless, live on KEXP!

**

Congratulations to all my HWA brothers and sisters who won awards last night at the Bram Stoker Awards! Mike Glyer has a list of the winners up on HERE, on his Fanlight Zone website. Check it out!

**

Kind of addicted to the A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST. I'd never seen the film before; despite countless recommendations it seemed to remain perpetually on the list. That changed this past Friday when Joe Bob Briggs showed it on The Last Drive-In. LOVED it. Loved it so much, but I need to have an immersive viewing, one without JBB's wonderful sidebars, which I love and can help ease the way for a movie like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but which impede the full effect of something like Ana Lily Amirpour's B&W, Arthouse Vampire masterpiece.



Also, the OST is chock full of unbelievable music, pretty much all from artists I am - for the moment - unfamiliar with. Lots of new music heading my way, which always makes me happy!

Playlist from 5/11:

Faith No More - King for a Day
Various Artists - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night OST
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Lovett - The Wind OST


Playlist from 5/12:

Faith No More - King for a Day
L7 - Scatter the Rats
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was
Godflesh - Pure

Card of the day:

The Fiery aspect of Fire - Pure Will. Which is what I will need to get through the day, I think. Long work weekend, followed by a rough Monday morning so far. I'll do what I always do - put my head down and charge through, stealing any moments I have along the way to work on Ciazarn, a growing obsession now that I've found the voice for it.

2019: May 11th Lovett - Demons of the Prairie

Yesterday I gushed for Emma Tammi's The Wind, today I'll gush for the score. I didn't know anything about Lovett, AKA Ben Lovett, but he's done quite a few scores, especially of late. You might know his music from The Ritual, The Wind, or I Trapped the Devil (which is one of the next movies on my to-watch list). The cool thing with this score though, is I've been working on this Ciazarn book with Jonathan Grimm, and I have a ton of research hours put in, an outline for the first issue/chapter, but I've been unable to find the voice for the actual prose. And a large part of the reason for that is I didn't have the right musical soundtrack to write it to. Music is essential to my writing process, and most of what I listen to evokes my usual tone, where let's say the stuff in A Collection of Desires is a nine on the darkness meter and Shadow Play is a four, and all of it is modern. Ciazarn is a completely different animal. It's 1930s Dustbowl, and it's dark, but it's told through the eyes of a ten-year-old, so that makes it less dark at times than most of my characters, and more dark other times, the hard part being able to tell where each is appropriate for the sake of the story. Anyway, with Lovett's OST for The Wind, I knocked out and polished a pretty fantastic opening paragraph yesterday, so I am excited!

**

Playlist from 5/10:

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
The Black Queen - Infinite Games
Lovett - The Wind OST
Thought Gang - Eponymous
Vanessa Williams - Dreaming' (Single)

**

Card of the day:

Feels good, the sturdy symmetry of the Threes. Feels like where I'm standing right now. Of course, from Three you inevitably have to move to Four, which is a little less stable, but I'll enjoy the feeling of having both feet firmly on the ground for the moment.

2019: May 10th - IT Chapter 2

Despite the holes in my memory that surround my viewing of Andy Muschietti's first chapter of IT,  I'm excited as hell for the sequel. This trailer was an interesting choice, and I think I much prefer seeing what appears to be an almost full scene from the film instead of a three-minute montage that really just ends up showing us too much.

**

I'm working all weekend, so today is my day off. I've learned to look forward to these weekday mornings - I can wake up, read for a bit while I brew some coffee, then settle in with a movie. Two weeks ago my Friday morning movie was David Robert Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake, and I'm still humming from that one. For today, I'd previously set my sights on Emma Tammi's The Wind. Really good. I feel like my open air viewing on the tv in our bedroom - which is not hooked to a proper sound system, as the one in our living room is - cheated me of a more enriching sonic experience then I first realized. But the logistics of watching the flick in the better room were a toss-up since I'm not the only one home, so I opted for the more isolated room despite its subpar audio set-up. I can see where a theatrical viewing, or headphones perhaps even more so, could make this film an even more intense experience. That then, is what my eventual second viewing will be focused around (so sorry I missed this at Beyondfest last year).



And being that this is my day off, last night I stayed up and watched Pledge, a film that has already gained the reputation of being 'too much.' I loved the set-up, loved the camerawork, set design, everything. And although Pledge definitely dips a few toes into the 'torture porn' aesthetic, I ended up really enjoying it. As for the movie being, 'too much,' I know the exact scene that elicits this response from people. I'm pretty squeamish, however, if you've read and learned to love Bret Ellis' American Psycho like I have, you'll do fine. Incidentally, Ellis' work feels like it a very large influence on Pledge, which also added to my enjoyment of the viewing. Pledge is currently on HULU, which really kind of shocked me



**

These isolated mornings are when I normally get a hankering for some Black Sabbath. For being one of my favorite bands, Sabbath's music is an extremely personal experience for me, and thus usually best when experienced alone. So I don't clock nearly as many hours with the group that I used to. At this point however, their music is in my blood, and when I do get a few moments to give one of those first eight records my undivided attention, it always supercharges the music for me. After the movie this morning, I settled in with Master of Reality on my headphones, and today Sweet Leaf really did it for me.



**

Playlist from 5/09:

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber III EP
Hall & Oats - Apple Music Essentials
Melvins - Houdini
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Earth - Cats on Briar (pre-release single)
Earth - The Color of Poison (pre-release single)
Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutes Meae
Thought Gang - Eponymous

No card today.

2019: May 9th - HBO's Watchmen Gets a Trailer!

Not what I expected. Very interested in this.

I totally missed that Laird Barron's new novel, Black Mountain, came out this past Tuesday. I cannot wait to read this. As the second in his new, hopefully ongoing, Isaiah Colerige series, this promises to be another fantastic read, just like last year's Blood Standard.

Mr. Barron's website is HERE, and you can buy the book from a local brick-n-mortar bookstore if you're lucky enough to still have one, or order it HERE.


**

Playlist from 5/08:

Various Artists - Singles OST
Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Twin Peaks: FWWM OST
Bad Luck - Four
Atrium Carceri  - Cellblock
Ghost - Prequelle
Ghost - Infestissumam
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Opeth - Blackwater Park

**

No card today.

2019: May 8th - The Lodge Trailer

I've been hearing great things about this, however I also heard great things about Severin Fiala and Veronica Franz's previous film, Goodnight Mommy, and I absolutely hated that, so I am going into The Lodge with manageable expectations.

For the record, I found Goodnight Mommy to be a very well-made film, with fantastic visual and aural aesthetics, however, the 'twist' was obvious from the first scene and the film played out pointlessly cruel. Much of it was just in very poor taste, in my opinion.

**

Damn it Mondo, another record I cannot resist drops tomorrow at noon:

**


Playlist from 5/07:

Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Twin Temple - Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound... Satanic Doowop
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Lustmord - The Word as Power
Ghost - Meliora

**

Card of day:

From the Grimoire: "The Fiery aspect of Fire. Pure Will. Creative Power that can tip into imbalance if one is not careful." See that horse? if the Knight is sitting wrong or ill-prepared, he's falling off.

2019: May 7th - New Tool Song (Live)

I'll admit that I am skeptical as all hell about new music from Tool. I love the band, or perhaps that feeling is better expressed in the past tense; the idea that it's been 13 years since 10,000 Days makes me wonder. Then again, I understand how life runs away with your time. I would have preferred to hear this as an actual album track, instead of a live one with a lot of close-talking crowd noise, but at this point, curiosity got the better of me.

**

Tommy from Heaven is an Incubator has a fantastic article up on Entropymag. In it, he juxtaposes his long-time love affair with the SXSW festival from his life before having children to his life with children. It is one of my favorite things I've read so far this year. Read it HERE.

**

NCBD tomorrow and here are my picks for the week:

Lodger has perplexed me. I've enjoyed it, but I'm confused and feel as though I'm missing something. My plan is to sit down and reread the entire five-issue run later this week and see how it pans out.

LOVE this John McCrea alt cover. Good to have Deadly Class back; if you haven't watched the SyFy show yet, it's all up streaming on the network's app and it is fantastic.

This book just gets better and better.

The return of the sleeper hit from 2018. Can't wait.

**

Playlist from 5/06:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Chasms - The Mirage
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor
King Buffalo - Longing to be the Mountain
Tomahawk - Anonymous
Nachtmystium - Black Meddle II: Addicts
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock

**

Card of the day

Emotional purity that can cloud the head, alter the perception of self, in both good and bad ways. This feels like a direct reference to incidents with peripheral people in my life that have affected my own. And this interference, as I'll refer to it, has pissed me off enough that it has clouded my own emotional stability, and thus, my headspace. I had an extremely unproductive day writing yesterday. I 'punched in' and put in the time, but felt utterly useless. That's okay, that happens sometimes, and from my experience you just have to deal with it. You suck up the bad, knowing the good always follows and outweighs it. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating and, eventually, hellishly introspective to sit and peck at the keys for two hours with nothing that feels like a result following from it.

Incidentally, I also suspect these periods follow rabid involvement in slightly frivolous music. I'm not connecting with much sonically right now, as I come off my Rob Zombie binge, and it bugs me. This Atrium Carceri is the new thing in a while that feels like it is moving and inspiring me.

2019: May 6th The Thirsty Crows - Anchors Up

I have not talked enough about The Thirsty Crows new album in these pages. Hangman's Noose, available from Batcave Records, is easily going to slip into my top five albums of the year. Over the last week or so, it has become one of those records I put on and end up listening to three or four times in a row; at fourteen songs/thirty-nine minutes, it's a perfect amount and yet not quite enough, so that by the time I reach the cover of Dramarama's Anything, Anything that finishes out the album, I'm ready for another full go-through. There's something epic about the way these guys approach Rockabilly; there's some great moments where the band members' love of metal comes through, and it blends perfectly with the 'billy aesthetic, so we get something both classic and refreshing. The mark of a great record, to be sure.

**

I recently interrupted my read of Alan Campbell's The Art of Hunting to act as an HWA colleague's first reader on his debut novel from Cemetery Dance. I'll post more about that once the release is officially announced, but in the meantime, since finishing that book, I jumped back into the second installment of Alan Campbell's Ghostdigger Chronicles, and just like that, I've fallen in head over heels again.

I can't recommend these books enough; people who know my tastes in fantasy fiction know I have little tolerance for 'High Fantasy.' But Campbell's Gravedigger books take one of the major tropes of High Fantasy, the inclusion of Dragons, and ports it into a truly fascinating world. A world where an ancient, almost extinct and now imprisoned race of cosmic sorcerers long ago tainted the Oceans with a baffling poisonous agent known only as Brine, making it toxic to most life. Humans who are exposed to Brine stiffen and crack like stone; full submersion - 'the drowned' - stay alive indefinitely, but change in strange and horrifying ways. And the sea life mutate horribly as well, only coming to the surface fleetingly, so that all the new forms are not necessarily known or understood, enormous boogey men of the depths. Oh, and the dragons, those are humans the Entropic Sorcerers long ago twisted into these massive new forms. And they're all insane, as you would be after going through such a thing.

I'm really not giving you much about the books, but it would be very hard for me to do these novels justice in only a few short words. All I can say is The Art of Hunting is turning out to be thrilling, and insanely more imaginative than the first volume, Sea of Ghosts. I know a lot of other folks out there that have similar tastes to my own - and those who do like High Fantasy - would probably all love these books.

There's an Amazon Link to buy these HERE. However, they're out of print and pretty expensive, so if you need an easier option, try HERE.

**

Playlist from 5/05:

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
James Brown - Black Cesar OST

**

Card of the day:

Moving forward. Which I am, by leaving two stories somewhat hanging and going full hilt on Ciazarn. So that feels good, to get validation from the cards.

2019: May 4th - Raimi & Aja's Crawl

I was skeptical at the beginning of this trailer, but Raimi's name soothed that a bit. By the end though, the concept and purported execution look fantastic, plus this looks to be receiving a theatrical release, and when was the last time you were able to see an alligator/crocodile attack flick in a megaplex? That alone seems as though it may be worth the cost of admission.

**

Well, only Joe Bob Briggs could get me to watch a film I'd long ago sworn never to watch. For the first time since the first week of JBB and Shudder's The Last Drive-In, I was able to sit down promptly at 6:00 PM and watch the show from the beginning. The first flick, Wolf Cop, was one I'd seen on the cue in Shudder but always passed over. I was pleased to see it pop up here, under the guidance of Joe Bob. 

The second film was the one I anticipated with no small amount of reservation: Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. I know it's a classic, and it's artistically solid, but serial killer stuff - especially when offered up so realistically - gets way too deep under my skin. And I'd always imagined that, if I watched this flick, it would fall somewhere in line with Irreversible and Requiem for a Dream, two films I simply wish I had never seen. However, I took the plunge because with Joe Bob's interruptions, I wagered that the presentation would be considerably less immersive, and I was right. Couple this with the fact that I luckily left the room for a beer during the infamous home invasion scene, and I braved Henry with no mental or emotional scars, and was finally able to see Michael Rooker's break-out performance, the only aspect of the film that had ever intrigued me to begin with. That's not to say Henry isn't a well-made film; it is, and so are Irreversible and Requiem. These are just films that delve into areas I feel no need to expose my sometimes fragile little psyche to. And in the spirit of that, I'll skip posting the trailer for Henry here.

**

You may notice Rob Zombie's two most recent albums have suddenly begun popping up on my daily playlists. This is a surprise to me; I've long held White Zombie's final two records as being among the best metal albums ever, however, Rob Zombie's dissolution of that group for a catchy but ultimately dumbed-down version never sat right with me. Yet, I'll admit that, for better or worse, there must be a little hot topic in my soul, because Zombie's solo stuff is something that, every once in a blue moon, I get a taste for. It usually sees me beat the hell out of La Sexorcisto and Astro Creep for a few days, probably throw on House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects, and then go back to keeping RZ at arm's length. Normally Zombie's solo albums don't really factor in, and if they do, I can burn through what I like about the first three in a stripped-down playlist. And you'll notice that on 4/02 that's how my recent binge began, by snapping the "Essential Playlist" from Apple Music and running through the hits. But then a funny thing happened. I made it through said playlist - skipping the cover of grand funk railroad's egregious 'we're an american band,' a song I hate so much in all forms I can't even stand to capitalize the title when spelling it - and decided I wanted more. So I moved on to the two newest albums, one of which I'd given a shake back when it came out and laughed off as a blatant caricature of an artist's music I already consider a caricature. But you know what? At least for the moment, I'm really enjoying both records. There's a ton 'Zombie-isms' you have to roll with, but overall, they're fun in the most frivolous way. Take the song below; I absolutely love the sample that starts the song and how it morphs into a rhythm. The lyrics and delivery however, need to be taken with a grain of salt, as they're bad. And I'm not sure if the obvious classic Les Claypool delivery Zombie takes on those lyrics is enraging or endearing, but for now I just can't make it past how much I dig the rhythm of the song.

And we see by the video, all of Mr. Zombie's obsessions are, of course, still in place after all these years. Part of me recoils at my occasional dalliances with Zombie's music, but like I said, every now and again, it just scratches some itch that builds up over time.

Tonight might be a good night to finally show Kirsten The Devil's Rejects.

**

Playlist from 4/03:

Metallica - Garage Days Re-Revisited

Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor

Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration...

Boy Harsher - Country Girl E.P.

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

The Atlas Moth - The Old Believer

Canadian Rifle - A Peaceful Death

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Enjoying the rewards of your endeavors."

2019: May 3rd: Veronica Mars Teaser

I've been wanting to post this for a few days, but I haven't had a chance to even step foot on blogger due to crazy work hours and constant exhaustion. I'm a HUGE fan of the original Veronica Mars series - especially the first season - so I'm excited as hell for the new series and an impetus to re-watch those old episodes.

**

This weekend it's Free Comic Book Day! Not sure if I'll be heading out to my beloved Comic Bug's annual gala, but if you're in Southern California and looking for something to do, Mike and Jun always have the best FCBD shindig. More info HERE.

Speaking of comics, this week was a light NCBD, but here's what I picked up:

And this one was HUGE. No spoilers here, but if you read The Walking Dead and haven't read issue 191 yet, stop what you're doing and go do that now!

Also, last weekend Jonathan Grimm got me hooked on the idea of reading comics on a Kindle. I'd read a few digital books before, but always on my laptop, and was never really a fan of it. With a Kindle or tablet however, it's pretty awesome. What else is pretty awesome is the fact that digital comics go on sale regularly. I'm not about to stop reading physical comics for my month-to-month titles, but for $3-$5 bucks a trade, I'm very much in the middle of a deep dive on stuff I've missed, am curious about, or that's out of print. First up was Grant Morrison's Animal Man trades; I read this title originally back in High School, circa '94, and it was one of the first books that blew my head wide open and transitioned me out of the superhero quagmire and into the Vertigo stuff. At some point I'm not sure what happened to the trades I had, and they are now well OOP, but on Kindle they're $4.99, so I picked up Vol. 1 and fell right back into this amazing book.

Next, for $2.99 I scored Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die. My good friend Mike Shin talked this character up on the DwC we did at his shop Amazing Fantasy in Chicago last December, and I'd been meaning to pick something up. For $3 I had no excuse. And, I mean, Frank Castle as the flame-headed spirit of Vengeance? In space? Former Herald of Galactus and associate of the Mad Titan?

Clearly, I'm still riding high off Avengers: Endgame, and it's reignited my love for Marvel. And for that price - how could you go wrong? If I'd paid $15-20 for this I'd probably not have dug it so much, but for what I paid I had a really fun time with it. Especially with Juggerduck...

**

Last Saturday, an extended cast of The Horror Vision watched Jordan Downey's new film The Head Hunter. It's awesome! Here the trailer and links to our new episode:



The Horror Vision on Apple
The Horror Vision on Spotify
The Horror Vision on Google Play
The Horror Vision.com

**
Playlist from 4/30:

Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Silversun Pickups - Better Nature
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Kevin Morby - Oh My God

Playlist from 5/01

Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Ghost - Meliora
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

Playlist from 5/02:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Jesus & The Brides of Dracula - Turning Teeth (Single)
Rob Zombie - Apple Music Essential Playlist
Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration...
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor

**

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Can be a bit of a cunt in matters pertaining to money or stability."

On. The. Nose.