Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent

I think I previously recorded this one in the "Playlist" section of this page as Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery yadayadayada. Apparently, the actual band name is Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent and the album is Crushing the Ritual Live. None of that really matters because this isn't a real band - it's Rob Zombie and his musical cohorts playing the fictional Black Metal band Heidi LaRock and her stoolies interview in Lords of Salem. Whatever the hell the name of it is, I LOVE it and kinda wish RZ would focus on making more of this for a while. Here's a video I didn't know existed until just now.

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Watch:

Another day at home yesterday, feeling like crap, waiting for the PCR test results to tell me what I'm now certain of: I do not have COVID. As I write this, I feel MUCH better. The AC/DC is cranked, my fingers are moving over the keys, and I'm starting my third pot of coffee. I'm almost 60% of the way through Stephen Graham Jones' new novel My Heart is a Chainsaw and I LOVE it so much. Spent a lot of time with that yesterday, as well as watching the following three flicks:

 

I bought this one sight unseen back when it was released on DVD circa 2008, watched it once or twice and, although really liking it, never made it back for another viewing until now. How was it? Vinyan is a Five Star film. Contrary to all the shit that studios like dimension were pumping into the Horror-sphere in the 00s, people like Fabrice du Welz were making excellent films such as this (his other Horror film I know, Calviare, is pretty badass too if memory serves).

 

Vinyan gave me the taste for more foreign Horror, so I decided to A and B an original and a remake, for which I chose the Indonesian film The Queen of Black Magic. The original was released in 1981, is pretty cool for that time and place, but doesn't sit terribly well now. It's by no means bad, just dated, so you really have to try and put yourself in the headspace of someone seeing this film in Indonesian in '81, which was admittedly probably insane. Overall I dug this one as a fun, kind of Hammer Horror-esque getaway. 

So how's the remake?

 

I f*&king loved this one. It's slow off the start, which I don't mind but feel deserves a warning. However, once this one gets going, holy hell, there's some squirm-worthy scenes the likes of which I don't think I've felt since Fede Alvarez's 2013 Evil Dead (which I adore). Really cool, simple story and execution, and lots of gnarly Horror.

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Playlist:

(NOTE: I didn't listen to any music yesterday, so this is what's on the stereo so far today)

Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent - Crushing the Ritual

Various - Lords of Salem OST

Zombi - 2020

Various - The Devil's Rejects OST

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

King Woman - Celestial Blues

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Card:

The past four days have definitely added up to a sort of renewal for me. I was pretty burnt out from work. If you look at the dark colors of Wednesday's pull (7 of Disks) and now the light, gentle colors of The Empress, that is sort of a visual expression of where I was two days ago compared to where I am now.

1 More Day 'til Halloween

Chock this up to unexpected. I finished my movie last night and sat down at my computer, only to stumble into a premiere for the first single from the upcoming first Remix album from Deftones - Black Pony. This is for the 20th Anniversary of their seminal album White Pony, which will always be special to me because it's where I began following the band. I'm not really one for remix albums, but this version of Knife Party - done by Purity Ring no less, a group I was briefly obsessed with during the later half of the 00s - is pretty fantastic on headphones. I'll definitely be giving the entire Black Pony a spin when it drops.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I had my second viewing of Rob Zombie's 2012 film Lords of Salem. The first time I watched this, back when it originally hit VOD, I have to say, I was not impressed. Now, however, I'm not sure how that was possible. This is easily my second favorite Zombie flick after House of 1000 Corpses. It's a slow burn - maybe a crawl really - but it's essentially Zombie doing Argento, and it really works well. Very few of the tropes RZ usually painfully adheres to are present (clowns, midget nazis, white trash, etc.), and everything about the film is breathtaking, especially Brandon Trost's cinematography and his ability to translate the genius of RZ's shots and composition. 

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons

25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia

26) Prince of Darkness/Tales of Halloween (remainder)

27) Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In - Nine short films

28) Halloween III: Season of the Witch

29) Lords of Salem/The Connors 2020 Halloween episode

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NCBD

I totally forgot to post my picks for NCBD this week. Some great stuff, but one above all else I've been chomping at the bit for:

One Turtle left in the not-so-distant future and he carries all of his brothers' (and sister's) weapons, so that we don't know which one it is? Wow. Haven't read it yet, but it's here by my side and I can't wait!

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Playlist:

Meg Myers - Sorry

Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge

Joy Division - Still

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico

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Card:

Fairness and mindfulness can eliminate unnecessary restrictions and problems down the road.

2018: May 12th 8:07 AM

Here's a song I originally found back in the mid-00s and then lost track of. Recently, I spent a good amount of time looking for Salem's Dirt on youtube but A) although the video left a lasting impression in my head, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the track, and B) there are a lot of bands named Salem. Anyway, I get to Keller's the other day and he has a Grimes-inspired playlist on and I see Salem Redlights. This makes me think about my fruitless search and I go on a tear again, preempting our meeting just to try and find this song. And I finally find it, I think by googling some combination of the words, "Salem + Music Video + Garage". Creepy AF.

I don't know if Salem is still kicking. Back in 2006-2007, I spent a lot of time nosing around online for music. I was also reading Wire magazine rabidly, and between the two I found quite a bit of really left of center music. I'm not talking about System of a Down left of center - they're not - or even Mike Patton left of center. This was small stuff. It was also around the time I first heard the terms "Witchhouse" and "Hypnogogic Pop", which may have essentially been the same thing. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that just kind of got swallowed with time, Salem being one of them. I stopped reading Wire after I left Borders (I'd have to drive to Amoeba to get it - need to look into reading it online), and started spending my time writing instead of snooping for music. The one site I found during the final years of that whole musical archeology thing that I stick to religiously is Heaven is an Incubator, because honestly, Tommy finds only great stuff and he finds a lot of it. Good to re-claim this now as something I can go to when I need a freaky vibe to catalyze a scene or idea.

I signed up for Tubi and finally gave Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem another chance and, holy cow, I really liked it. The last time I think my two major problems were we were still kind of coming off his lackluster Halloween stint, and I fell asleep during my viewing. This time I was wide awake in spite of starting the movie with some yawns, but it pretty much kept me glued. And I thought Sherri Moon Zombie did a really great, somewhat nuanced job in the starring role. So that kind of puts RZ's films back in the black with me, with only his Michael Myers-as-Jason Voorhees singular one of his I hate, and the first Halloween feeling pointless and mean.

Playlist from yesterday:

Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin 1
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelicts
Nachtmystium - Reign of the Malicious
Darkness Brings the Cold - IX
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. 2
Burzum - Aske

Card of the day:

Watery aspect of fire - temper Will with Emotion.

Rob Zombie on the Lords of Salem

Rob Zombie Talks 'The Lords of Salem' and... by DM-Exclusives

thanks to the awesome Bloodydisgusting for posting this.