Blood Red: Hoop-Tober 5.0 – Week One

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blood red 5.0 - week 1

It’s become a tradition to have the first week of the annual Hoop-Tober horror marathon be a bit of a mixed bag.  Last year I had a fantastic Stephen King adaptation in Andy Muschietti’s It; this year I had to deal with the drudgery of Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of King’s short story The Mangler.  And it was a double dose of not-great Robert Englund performances: besides starring (under tons of makeup) in The Mangler, I also had to reckon with perhaps the worst Freddy Krueger entry with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.  It wasn’t all terrible, though.  Between the slam dunk that is Panos Cosmatos’s psychedelic revenge nightmare that is Mandy, the uncomfortable indie black comedy of Prevenge and the gruesomely fun throwback that is the 1988 remake of The Blob I was able to salvage the opening week of the marathon quite nicely.

And I’m already working my way through a killer second week, so enough of the opening jibber-jabber.  Let’s get to the review excerpts below.   Continue reading →

Receiving the Evcharist: Fórn and Casa de Fruta 1940 Pilsner

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Receiving the Evcharist

Receiving the Evcharist is our weekly feature where we pair choice albums with our favorite libations.  Drink from the cup of heresy.  This week’s offering: Fórn’s Rites of Despair and Gordon Biersch Brewing Company’s Casa de Fruita 1940 Pilsner.   Continue reading →

Wake Up and Smell the Satan! – September 21, 2018

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wake-up-and-smell-satan

This semi-regular space has emerged somewhat as a look at appearances of Satan in popular culture and looks at new and upcoming black metal. In recent weeks, the Dark Lord has appeared in much national and international news…. Continue reading →

Album Review: Krigsgrav – “Leave No Path to Follow”

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Krigsgrav-Leave-No-Path-To-Follow

I could do a lot of poetic waxing here to set the mood for Leave No Path to Follow, the new album from Texas blackened doom merchants Krigsgrav, about how their mid-paced melancholic mix of metal was not only a chance to get some alliteration in this review, but also describes the thick atmosphere they bring to the table.  I could mention the sterling cover of “Brave” from Katatonia’s Brave Murder Day and how that really stands as a touchstone for what the band can do.  And I’ll probably talk about all that in greater detail in the main part of this review.

The clearest thing I can say about the album and band is this:  I never heard of them before, got the promo, took a listen, and immediately went and bought the rest of the band’s discography.  It’s called striking a nerve, and it struck all of mine.  So let’s do this.   Continue reading →

Profile: Randall Krieger and Robby Perry of Progressive Death Metallers Anisoptera

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Anisoptera

Progressive metal bands place emphasis on technical complexity and push the accepted standards for song structuring with each new effort. When this is done under the guise of death metal there’s a fine line of coming off too technical or pushing the envelope too far, results at either of those points vary from fair to midland. California’s Anisoptera manage this fine line surprisingly well on their recently released full length Spawn of Odonata. Spontaneity and creativity collide face first with melodicism and brutality across the eight songs contained on this debut effort – it’s hard hitting AND memorable, can’t ask for much more than that on a debut. Armed with our set of Profile questions we recently sat down with guitarist Randall Krieger and vocalist Robby Perry to gain some insight into the band so head directly below to see what they had to say. Continue reading →