I know it's summer now, as one of the rituals that eased in last year during my first full summer in Tennessee was Black Sabbath's Eponymous debut becoming my 'first thing in the morning' listen. This is no doubt because, for as long as I've loved this record, it will always remind me of two very particular summers—one when I was a Junior in High School and one when I was a year or two out of High School. I listen to this year-round, but since moving back to the middle of the country and the climate I grew up with Sabbath's debut has come back to an association of hanging outdoors in the green environment of the midwest's humid, sub-tropical environment.
Watch:
Holy cow! I completely missed that Larry Fessenden's Blackout hit VOD this past Friday! I remedied that right quick, let me tell you!
I really dug this one, but at this point, that's no surprise. I wouldn't say this is anywhere near my favorite film by Mr. Fessenden, but its ability to mix an almost regional approach with a fairly stacked cast reminded me of Harmony Korine's Gummo - although the subject matter and tone are nothing like that film. This environmentally conscious, small-town set film does some pretty interesting things with the concept of lycanthropy, in a tone that will feel familiar to those viewers who have been with Mr. Fessenden for a long time. Reminded me quite a bit of his 1991 film No Telling, a favorite of mine from the Director's oeuvre.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Barry Adamson - Cut to Black (pre-release singles)
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Adam Egpy Mortimer - The Obelisk
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• II High Priestess
• VII The Chariot
• Page of Cups
Of particular interest to me this morning is the High Priestess in the starting position. This is the middle pillar of the sephirothic Tree of Life, and thus concerns concerns the descent of the Supernal into the lower, knowable realms and the ascent of the aspirant to higher plateaus. Taken with The Chariot - the origin of ideas - and the Page (Princess of Cups), which can indicate "Dreams become Reality," I would say this is a nice nod toward a path that might provide the possibility for my work to emerge into a higher (more successful) realm.
The first harbinger for High on Fire's upcoming album Cometh the Storm has landed, and as one would expect, it's the sonic equivalent of having Matt Pike kick you in the skull! The album is out April 19th, pre-order HERE.
This is the first High on Fire album in six years and I'm pretty damn excited. I've followed these guys since Man's Ruin (RIP) released The Art of Self Defense in 2000, and I'd grown rather used to looking to a new album every 2-3 years*, so I'm more than ready for a new full-length.
.............................................
* Granted, Pike Vs. the Automaton came out two years ago, so it's not like I've been going through a total detox.
Watch:
I feel like I've been waiting on a release announcement for Larry Fessenden's Blackout for a year now, so imagine my surprise and excitement this morning when I found that a trailer had dropped!
Despite my recent aversion to trailers (they ruin movies), I did allow myself to watch this one. Probably mostly because I doubt I'll see this in the cinema before any movies, so I'll be able to control only seeing it the onc time. And, as with all of Fessenden's films, my anticipation for this one is already sky-high already! Some of what I'm reading shows this getting a slightly wider-than-usual theatrical release, so I'm crossing my fingers we get it here in Clarksville or, at the very least, in Chicago. I'd totally drive seven hours to see a Larry Fessenden film on the big screen.
Playlist:
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
High on Fire - Burning Down (single)
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (pre-release singles)
Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves
Various - Return of the Living Dead Soundtrack
Idles - Tangk
Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Yawning Balch - Volume One & Two
The Police - Synchronicity
Dean Hurley - Tales From the Library of the Occult Present: Flower
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Swords
• IX: The Hermit
• Two of Pentacles
Five of Swords is a tricky place to start. There's an interpretation that Fives cast a Pall over other cards in the reading, as they can be seen as indicating conflict or struggle. Struggle is not necessarily a bad thing, though. So we're starting at a struggle, and moving into The Hermit, which usually bespeaks re-grouping or gestation. Finally, the Two of Pentacles can suggest both collaboration and opposition. Now, it would be tempting to take that "Pall" of the Five of Swords (especially because it's Swords) and read this entire Pull as negative or conflictory, however, from the Grimoire:
"Two's - Chokmah on the Sepheritoic Tree of Life - actually represents the number one, as they are the first physical manifestation of the elements, still harmonious and untainted by anything material. I'd look at this, then, as a forthcoming struggle of intellect that will require a period of deliberation (gestation) and a new idea/approach, untainted by previous lust of result.
That's a considerably more in-depth interpretation than I've done in a while. Not sure if I'm just looking for a cheerier answer than "conflict!" or if the motivation to go below a surface reading is stronger today. Either way, this applies pretty directly to what I'm currently working on, so I'll take it.
*The only Sephiroth/Trump higher being Kether, which is, in Grant Morrison speak, the intangible "White Hot Room."
Thursday morning and I happened to stumble upon this video for Spelljammer's "Bellwether." I'd not heard of these guys before, however, Riding Easy Records has a pretty gnarly track record when it comes to Doom/Stoner metal. So of course, it comes as no surprise that this track instantly put the band on my radar. From the album Abyssal Trip, available to order HERE.
Watch:
Ted Geoghegan's We Are Still Here is one of my favorite flicks of the 10s. As such, I was pretty excited to see all the news surrounding the release of his new film, Brooklyn 45, June 9th on Shudder. Here's the trailer:
In keeping with my recent philosophy of avoiding trailers, I watched about 30 seconds of this and turned it off. I mean, Larry Fessenden's in it, what more do I need to know?
Nothing. 100% sold on this.
Playlist:
Spotlights - Seance EP
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Blut Aus Nord - Thematic Emanations of Archetypal Multiplicity EP
Estrasphere - It's Understood
R.I.P. - Street Reaper
The Sword - Warp Riders
Lustmord - Berlin
Ghost - Phantomime EP (pre-release singles)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Still sick and I just do not have the energy for anything, hence why this is posting so late. Anyway, let's see if I have it in me to do a quick breakdown:
• Ace of Swords - Breakthough. I read this as Will honed to the point of perfection, obliterating an obstacle. Not sure what that applies to here, but maybe that will become clear as I go.
• Nine of Swords - Accomplishment
• Judgement - "Aeon" in Crowley and Harris's Thoth, this card indicates a pivotal point in the sequence.
All this seems to add up to say a touch-up on my application of Willpower should provide a breakthrough in a project. I think the Will is going to come into play getting back into writing daily - I haven't been doing much more than working and watching movies while I've been sick.
A new Human Impact EP dropped last Friday and I totally missed it. Last year's eponymous album from these guys was kind of the soundtrack to the apocalypse, so this comes with mixed feelings. Either way, if shit goes pear-shaped again, at least it'll have another great OST.
Watch:
April 16th can't get here fast enough. Why?
I'll see anything even remotely associated with Larry Fessenden regardless, but it's always great when he spends more time on screen. Here, he's leading man opposite Barbara Crampton? In what looks like a fantastic modern vampire movie, no less. Count me in.
Playlist:
Pilotpriest - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Godflesh - Pure
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
Suburban Living - How to be Human
Pigface - Live 2019 (vinyl, 231 of 1000)
Huey Lewis and the News - Weather
Card:
I read this as "letting go," which is especially pertinent to my day job at the moment. Being made salary means I'm taking a pay cut if I continue to work the extra hours I am essentially taking a pay cut, so I have to learn to let certain things go. I have a good team that works for me, and what this ultimately means is I will have a lot more time to write. Win Win, as long as I can let go.
One of my favorite albums from my Relapse Records 30th Anniversary Golden Ticket is Valkyrie's Fear. Some call this Proto-Metal, and that fits pretty good for me, although straight-up Hard Rock probably also works, as long as that moniker doesn't diminish the band in any way. Because Valkyrie feels like a very tight four-piece making metal that doesn't slot into the modern broth a lot of the bands I dig sip from. There's a definite 'back-to-basics' with instrumentation, arranging, and vocals, so in that regard they remind me a bit of The Devil's Blood or Baroness. But these guys are their own thing, and I dig it.
Watch:
I don't remember hearing about Director Chad Crawford Kinkle's new film Dementer before seeing this post on Bloody Disgusting recently, however, with Larry Fessenden's name on top of the video drew me in, so that as I was about to post this trailer last night, I realized Dementer released this very day, so I hit amazon and rented it for a paltry $4.99 - SO very worth it.
The trailer doesn't give anything away, so my elevator pitch would be, "Gummo meets Hereditary." If that sounds as intriguing to you as it does to me, rest assured that although Dementer takes a little bit of a laborious journey to achieve its destination, the destination is 100% worth it, the atmosphere alone inciting a pleasurable Horror movie anxiety the likes of which I haven't had in a while
As an aside, it's been a difficult couple weeks at work - the unprecedented weather in the south basically destroyed FedEx's operations out of their Memphis hub for a fortnight, and with it, made my life a living hell. One of the things that always helps me through a rough day at the office - other than the copious amount of music I listen to on my headphones - is browsing Bloody Disgusting for new movie news. But almost a year after the first major changes due to the COVID-19 virus, the film industry's shut down is finally hitting us in the form of what feels like a MAJOR drought. People just haven't been able to film, and we've run through a lot of what was already in the pipes pre-pandemic, so there's not a lot coming out. First-world problems, I know, but it doesn't change the world from feeling even bleaker at the moment. In contrast to this was my stumbling across Dementer last night and being able to click over and jump right in.
Playlist:
Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher
Melvins - Working with God
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
Lynch Mob - Wicked Sensation
The Misfits - Earth A.D.
The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup (single)
The Foundations - Baby, Now That I Found You (single)
Various Artists - That Philly Sound Presents The Best of Northern Soul
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Queensrÿche - Empire
Keiichi Okabe - NieR:Automata OST
Valkyrie - Fear
Card:
The Elevatred (or Macro) view is always the clearest when it comes to details on the horizon.
M83's new album Digital Shades Vol. II dropped today. It's gorgeous, and coincidentally makes a perfect soundtrack to my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science. I'm eleven issues in and th Telepathic Millipede death cult is one of the awesomest/creepiest lifeforms I've seen in a SciFi/Fantasy story like this. Check that - there are no SciFit/Fantasy stories like this. Pure, unraveling, multi-dimensional madness, and I'm loving it, especially with this lush, analog soundtrack. I fell out with M83 after HUWD, and I still want a non-instrumental record from them again, but in the meantime, DSVII is fantastic.
**
Larry Fessenden's modern take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is fantastic, and if you're in Hollywood and get a chance to see that - or any of the other goodies playing there - you should definitely drop in at Arena Cinelounge. Fantastic venue for short run/obscure flicks. I posted the trailer for Depraved yesterday, so today, here's a super cool behind the scenes shot I found online, along with a LINK to a cool article by Fessenden on why he makes movies.
For my money, Mr. Fessenden is the closest thing to a John Carpenter-level talent who isn't wearing his JC influence on his sleeve (not always a bad thing, the point here is LF is as original in his approach now as JC was to his back in the day), toiling away in partial obscurity, making original, solid flicks that are as interesting to the philosophical mind as they are to the eye. Support this man's work!
My full, short review of Depraved is up on Letterbxd HERE.
**
Playlist from 9/19:
Tomahawk - Eponymous
Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
**
Card of the day:
Wow, talk about the cards talking directly, clearly, right to me! Two days of the 4 of Disks, Power while I recharge my mental and physical batteries, directly followed by the 3 of Disks, Work, telling me to get my ass back in gear and get to work. Time to wrap Black Science for the day and head out to write!
A friend and I are going to check out Larry Fessenden's new film Depraved in Hollywood tonight, and I am excited! I've been waiting for some time for this, a modern re-telling of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein tale. The trailer looks fantastic, and the theatre the film is playing at is one of my favorite little nooks and crannies in a city where everything is overblown and overexposed. A fun time will be had by all, of that I am certain.
**
New Fangoria arrived two days ago and I've barely had a chance to scratch the surface.
Great cover.
**
Playlist from 9/18:
Sausage - Riddle Are Abound Tonight
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Sepultura - Roots
Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart
Lustmord - The Word as Power
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
**
Card of the day:
I love seeing the same card multiple days in a row, especially when I can interpret the pull as a nod that what I've been doing is the right thing to be doing. Burnt out and not in the best physical shape, I took another day off from writing after work yesterday and had a big ol' nap. It was glorious! This restorative, Powering Up period has worked wonders - I feel considerably better today than I did yesterday, so tomorrow it's going to be rest in the morning, and then back at it.
Actually, I did a little bit of work yesterday: finally dug out an old manuscript I intend to canabalize for an upcoming short story. It was fun revisiting old material, especially looking at it with fresh eyes, seeing what I can use and what will be changed or tossed. This new one's been on my mind for over a year, so I can't wait to tear into it!
The Youtube description for this track calls it the fourth single released so far from Drab Majesty's forthcoming Modern Mirror album. Really? I hadn't realized we were up to four already, I guess primarily because other than the first single, I'm not listening to anything until my actual physical copy of the record arrives. ModernMirror drops in two Fridays - can't wait.
**
Frank Black Appreciation Week continues in these pages with my favorite cut from 2007's Bluefinger, which marked a return to Frank's Black Francis persona. Well, not really a persona in the way, say, Bowie had personas, but Bluefinger definitely marked a change from the post-Catholics Americana vibe Black had been doing. Compared to Fast Man Raider Man, Bluefinger goes back to what I consider a more Pixies-ish approach to songwriting. Several of the tracks on Bluefinger - including this one - veer into similar territory as some of The Pixies' more unstable songs; Threshold Apprehension is nuts in the way Broken Face or Rock Music are nuts.
**
So, Slayer is on their "Final Tour." I've lived through this with so many bands, so many times - I was in High School and fairly new to concerts when I attended Ozzy's No More Tours tour, thinking, "Oh my god, I'm going to see Ozzy Osbourne's final tour!"
Hahah.
And so it goes. Fool me once, yada yada. The point being, I doubt this is Slayer's final tour. And in my opinion, the band should have been over when Jeff Hanneman died. But here they are, dry humping a dead and bloated cash cow. I'm not going to say that Slayer doesn't still rule, because despite the fact that I haven't cared about almost any record they've released since Seasons in the Abyss - though Christ Illusion was a pretty nice return to form - I'd wager they still tear shit up live. And so it was that fact and the idea of the possibility the Forum show in Los Angeles - billed as their final show ever - might actually be Slayer's final show - that I tentatively went to the band's website to sign up for their newsletter and get the pre-sale passcode. You know, just to see what tickets are going to cost. And you know what I found? Slayer is charging $20 to join and get the passcode. $30 if you want some stupid poster with the code.
How completely un-fucking-metal.
Retire now guys, before you end up fucking up your legacy. PLEASE.
**
Last night I happened to turn on one of Shudder's tv stations just as Ana Asensio's Most Beautiful Island began, so I dug in and followed it with absolutely no expectations. I do not believe I had ever even heard of this film before.
First good sign was Glass Eye Pics put this out. Always a good thing. So I let the story take me for its ride, and I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended. Here's the trailer, which I've vetted to make sure it doesn't show too much. Not that there's a twist, but the film didn't go anywhere I expected it to go, and I loved it for that.
Also, Larry Fessenden has a small part, so that always wins me over.
**
Playlist from 7/11:
Mazy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Balthazar - Fever
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Slipknot - Iowa
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
**
Card of the day:
Normally, I don't have a particular question in mind when I do these daily pulls. Instead, I just kind of clear my thoughts for a second and let the card that comes up serve as a portent for the day itself. Today, I wanted to go specific, so as I pulled I thought about a current struggle I've had, namely doing this last read-through with the physical, paperback copy of Shadow Play.
My impetus for doing one last read-through, after just doing another, was the hunch (which proved correct) that reading a novel in physical book form rather than digital would be a drastically different experience, and thus, I would see or catch things I had not in that last digital pass over. And of course, I was correct. Nothing major, but I've already fixed a few minor grammatical errors, as well as at least two spelling errors, on this read. That said, I'm sick to fucking death of reading this book; between this and the short story I began in Spokane, love, but cannot seem to finish, I feel very much held hostage at the moment. Which is zapping my creativity. Ideas are floating to the forefront of my brain daily, and some of them seem so appealing. Plus, it's always invigorating to start something new. So, what do I do? Well, one interpretation of this card is a warning against succumbing to daydreaming, getting lost in flights of fancy, which I definitely take to mean - as my gut tells me - stay on course and do NOT get distracted.
What an awesome mail week! First, yesterday I received Rendered Armor, the new LP from Ritual Howls. Out on Felte Records now, this is a damned fine piece of music; when I pre-ordered the vinyl a few months back, I sunk in the extra couple bucks to receive the hardbound book. A retrospective of the Ritual Howl's existence thus far, the history is told in gorgeous B&W photography and set against a backdrop of all the band's lyrics. Holding the finished product in my hand I can tell you it is very cool. Love these guys so very much.
Second, on Wednesday, I received Shout Factory's Larry Fessenden Collection. I've wanted this for years, finally pulled the trigger on it. Four features - No Telling, Habit, Wendigo, and The Last Winter, as well as the short White Trash. No Telling was the one I'd missed - although I haven't seen Wendigo since the early 2000s, so it will be mostly like seeing it again for the first time - and after watching it last night I absolutely loved it. Maybe my favorite of Mr. Fessenden's (although I'll probably say that about all of them. No Telling is known overseas as The Frankenstein Complex, a title that's a bit too on the nose in my opinion, but me thinks this film serves as a harbinger for Fessenden's much-anticipated new film Depraved, about "...a disillusioned field surgeon who makes a man out of body parts and brings him to life in a Brooklyn loft."
Definite companion pieces.
The package is loaded with extras, many of which Fessenden introduces, and I intend on watching everything and in order of release! Can't wait.
**
Playlist from 3/29:
Faith No More - King for a Day
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
I discovered The Blueflowers yesterday on KXLU. Wow. Love this band. They have several albums available through their bandcamp HERE, and most if not all of those are on Apple Music. I'm digging into 2018's Circus on Fire this morning, and it's taking me places both familiar and strange.
I forgot to mention that last Friday I watched Pod, a film from 2015 directed by Mickey Keating. I'd seen the thumbnail for this one for years. I've also started to see discussion among a fairly rabid Keating fanbase I never realized existed, and after just this one flick I can see why some would rabidly endorse his movies. Pod is fantastic; Larry Fessenden's in it, and that's almost always a great sign; based on the simple, no-nonsense execution of a straight forward horror/sci fi concept, I'm guessing Mickey Keating's work will fit in nicely alongside Ti West and Joe Begos. In fact, Pod and Begos' The Mind's Eye would make an Excellent double feature.
Playlist from 1/14:
Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the White Horse (pre-release single)
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the Entrance into Eternity
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
David Zinman, Dawn Upshaw & London Sinfonietta - Gorecki: Symphony No. 3
Card of the day:
Second day in a row for this one. And that's probably because my interpretation yesterday was correct; I came SO close to finishing the book. So this card reappears today, because Today is the day.
Beginning the first of three days off with some Etta:
It's nice to wake up leisurely, lay in bed with the one you Love and read. I finished Han King's The Vegetarian - ranked it with four out of five stars on Goodreads. The prose itself was outstanding, especially in the third section of the book, which is sort of three short stories with characters that thread them together into a novel. I would be curious to read more by Han King, and perhaps I will do so, however, my to-read pile is currently out of control. For now I'm going to duck back into Thomas Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer/Grimscribe, which I started at the beginning of the year while I was in Chicago and, truthfully, am finding a little difficult to stick through. My one book from last year that still lingers at 25 % read is, similarly, Ramsey Campbell's Alone with the Horrors. It's not short story anthologies I have an issue sticking with per say, but instead the tone of both Ligotti and Campbell's work. No, they're not "Too Dark", there's just something in each that leaves me a bit flat. Perhaps my expectations for Ligotti were a tad high - this is the first of his works I've read, and knowing he was a major influence on True Detective Ssn 1 excited the hell out of me. I loved that season and - despite hating the ending - its tone is one of my favorites ever, and it's not that I expected or even wanted Ligotti's work to be similar, but I wasn't expecting the slightly truncated manner in which he sometimes works. I'm half way through Songs of a Dead Dreamer and although the first few stories hit me very hard, as I go deeper I feel a certain unfinished or rushed quality to some of them, the best example of which is The Lost Art of Twilight, which felt extremely rushed, as if the author had no idea how to pay-off what he had so carefully set up. Maybe I'm simply missing something, or maybe not, this is merely my perception at this point.
So if I'm going to pick at Ligotti's short stories over the course of the next few months, using one or two as palate cleansers between longer works, I need something as my next main read. Nick Cave's And the Ass Saw the Angel is on deck, however K gifted me a copy of this little gem last night for our two-year anniversary and I'm already chomping at the bit to go through it, even though it will inevitably lead to that to-read pile growing exponentially.
"There are simply too many books to read, whatever shall I do?" This, ladies and germs, is the definition of First World Problems. We live amazing lives folks, don't take them for granted.
Play list from yesterday:
Swans - Glowing Man
ttt (Crosses) - Eponymous
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Godflesh - A World Lit Only by Fire
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Drove up to Hollywood last night and attended a limited screening of Robert Mockler's Like Me. I posted the trailer a few days ago but here it is again; I loved this flick. The characters are hard to like but the journey they take is one big dig on social media culture - or lack thereof - and the method by which the film is assembled is gorgeous, reminding me of Harmony Korine for sure. To me that's a good thing. And of course Larry Fessenden is in it, and I generally like everything he is associated with.
Card of the day:
This one shows up inverted; I've never placed a lot of weight on card inversion, especially in single card draws. There's something to be said for their interpretation when they're juxtaposed with other cards in a spread, but alone, it's kind of just the card to me.
There's nothing in my Grimoire about this one so what do we know? Well, this is the Airy-aspect of Fire; look at the movement in the card - rushing forward, so we're talking motivation, movement, doing. Interesting then that I'm intent on doing nothing but relaxing for the next three days. Well, that's not entirely true, we have some social events planned, and I had wanted to write each day, even if just to do these posts and get in my daily words, which could totally be the aspect of the weekend that I brush off. So I'll interpret drawing this card as sound advice not to do that.
