Now Playing #13

Communic - Conspiracy in Mind

If you look up any reviews for Communic, you will find plenty of comparisons to Nevermore.  Fair or unfair, it's undeniable that these Norwegians ply the same progressive form of traditional heavy metal.  And then there's the fact that vocalist/guitarist Oddleif Stensland sounds a lot like the late Warrel Dane.  I'm not here to cast aspersions or use the "r" word (hint: it rhymes with "'zipoff"), though.  At the end of the day, the more music out there that can be described as Nevermore-esque, the better.  Conspiracy in Mind is their debut full-length, and it came out in 2005.  It's teeming with catchy hooks, melodic leads, and sophisticated arrangements.  Favorite cuts?  "Ocean Bed" and the title track, not that there are any weak links.  Check it out!

Sebastian Bach - Child Within the Man

Am I really dishing on a Sebastian Bach album in 2024?  Damn the odds (and the torpedoes).  Before you smirk disparagingly in my direction, I'll have you know that Baz's track record as a solo artist is pretty much spotless.  Don't believe me?  Scope out 2007's Angel Down, which ranks up there with Skid Row's finest moments.  It's not a competition, but for what it's worth, this stuff torches the modern iteration of his former band.  Say what you want about the guy; he can sing.  What is he, 94?  The fact that he can still hit some of these notes is low-key astounding.  Overall, Child Within the Man is a sprightly, dynamic slice of hard rock that features as many memorable choruses as it does guest guitar solos.  I think Orianthi plays on "Future of Youth."  I forgot that she existed.

If you can stomach the generic songtitles, I'd advise eyeballing "(Hold On) To the Dream," "Crucify Me," and the ultra-slick "About to Break."  Hey, you can't listen to black metal all of the time.  I mean, you could, but you can't wear corpsepaint in the rain, now can you?

Blood Capsule #203

THE PRESENCE (1992)

A couple of months back, give or take, I reviewed Fright Night Part 2.  I had so much fun with it, I decided to explore the rest of director Tommy Lee Wallace's resume.  One title kept sticking out.  This title, as a matter of fact.  It's a made-for-TV morsel that was intended to be a pilot for a series that never germinated.  I've covered a lot of those lately.  Strange.  Anyway, The Presence feels formulaic, like it could have been directed by anyone.  Synopsis!  After a plane crashes in the Pacific, the inhabitants wash ashore on some remote island.  They find bananas, coconuts, and an abandoned military base.  Two of the men are groped by a tentacled critter, and as a result, they begin to mutate in different ways.  So what happened on this island?  And should our survivors be worried that ol' Frank is developing reptilian features?

I suppose it would be more appropriate to say that he's turning into an amphibian, but I'm not your biology teacher.  I will only tell you what you need to know.  That is, The Presence has a fishman in it!  This sub-subgenre is the bee's kneecaps.  Whether it's the Gillman in Creature From the Black Lagoon or the mucky sex offenders in Humanoids From the Deep, I'm a huge fan of these particular monsters.  Unfortunately, the fauna in this flick is pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things.  It doesn't even kill anyone.  All told, the majority of The Presence would fit nicely in the action/adventure section of your local video store.  I had to see it, though.  I had to be sure, y'know?  For what it is, it's competent.  The pace is kinetic, and hey, we get to ogle Kathy Ireland in a pink bathing suit.

Recommended to fans of driftwood and Beach Blanket Bingo.

Random Match Alert

You want random?  I got random.  Here's a match from late in Hakushi's WWF run.  He doesn't even get an entrance, as it's obvious they're pushing Goldust to the moon.  The match itself is a banger.  For my money, the New Generation Era went just as hard as any other era in the history of American pro-wrestling.

Blood Capsule #202

FUNERAL HOME (1980)

If I had my druthers, I would have watched this movie on VHS.  I've been after the Paragon big box version for years.  You could say that it's one of my holy grails, along with other choice heirlooms that are out of my price range.  Of course, I only want it for the artwork* (pictured below).  The movie itself is almost inconsequential.  It's certainly not atrocious, but it's not something I've been dying to write about.  An early instance of "hick horror," Funeral Home follows 16-year-old Heather.  She's staying with her grandmother for the summer and helping out with the family business.  To wit, they run a bed and breakfast, but the domicile used to be a funeral parlor.  It isn't long before guests begin to disappear.  So we have a slasher on our hands.  Who is doing the slashing?

No, it's not Wink Martindale.  Is he still alive?  I digress; the killer's identity is exceedingly easy to predict.  The lack of any real twists hinders the final product more than anything.  If I had to smoke out a silver lining, it would be the menacing atmosphere.  Director William Fruet does a swell job of framing an otherwise uneventful exposition.  Trivia! He also shot Blue Monkey, Killer Party, Spasms, and upwards of 27 (!) episodes of Goosebumps.  That's a lot of Goosebumps.  If Funeral Home was written by R.L. Stine, maybe we would find out that the title location resided in outer space.  Yeah, that's what it needed.  A little spice.  As it stands, it's just a 3-Z'Dar affair, and that's being generous.  Nothing to see here, folks.

*The Blu-ray is adorned with the same image, but pfft.  Where's the fun in that?

Make Room for Dom

Went to a wedding yesterday.  Only succeeded in making me want to watch The Stepfather 2.  As for the rest of the week, you can expect more Blood Capsules and maybe a short story.  I'm going to post it on Patreon in five installments, starting maybe tomorrow.  I know that's a lot of maybes, but it's definitely going to happen.  If you decide that you want to read it, click HERE and sign up like all the other cool kids.

Album Cover of the Whatever

This sleeper hit of sorts juuuuust missed my Best Metal of 2024...So Far list.  The band is Thanatotherion.  The subgenre is black metal with some ambient touches.  The album cover is insane.  Seriously, that's one for the books.

Best Metal of 2024...So Far

This list is in no particular order.  I hate making lists of any kind, but since we're at the halfway mark of the year, it seems like the thing to do.  It will be interesting to see if any of these records will wind up on my year-end list.  Note!  I'm currently listening to Severe Torture's Torn From the Jaws of Death.  I suggest you do the same.  It just about ripped my head clean off.

Abigor -  Taphonomia Aeternitatis

Caligula's Horse - Charcoal Grace

Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Haxan Sabaoth

Dool - The Shape of Fluidity

Wheel - Charismatic Leaders

Sarcasm - Mourninghoul

Suldusk - Anthesis

Severe Torture - Torn From the Jaws of Death

Sebastian Bach - Child Within the Man

Blood Capsule #201

BURIAL GROUND: THE NIGHT OF TERROR (1981)

File this one under "movies I really should have seen by now."  Burial Ground feels like a lost Lucio Fulci joint, which means it's right up my alley.  For the record, my alley is littered with refuse and alcohol-scented bums that look like George "Buck" Flower.  Back on topic, Dom!  The plot is so bare, that if it were a person, I would be concerned for its well-being.  All gaunt and rawboned, the script follows an archeologist who has uncovered a putrid crypt, a baronial thing of stone that houses an army of the undead.  And that's it.  My meager synopsis could almost pass for the script itself.  There are plenty of characters, but you will only remember Michael.  Oh, Michael.  He is the awkward son of our leading lady.  Don't ask me to pinpoint his age.  Most likely, he frequents kindergarten (the jury's out on whether he's a student or a teacher).

Burial Ground is notorious for its rampant gore.  Again, I'm reminded of Fulci, but as much as I love The Beyond and City of the Living Dead, they are a little harder to penetrate.  This flick doesn't follow dream logic.  No, it's wide awake, and the breakneck pace ensures viewer participation.  Once the zombie action starts in earnest, it doesn't let up until we see the ending credits.  Needless to say, the special effects are stupendous.  While it may be true that exploding heads lose their charm after awhile - wait, hold up; that's not true at all!  Add Burial Ground: The Night of Terror (a.k.a. Zombie Minus One...just kidding) to your chopping list pronto.  It's an effortless watch.  I'm deducting one Z'Dar because of Michael.  Oh, Michael.

Discography Diving

Does anybody else do this?  Discography diving is not unlike dumpster diving, I reckon, but it can be rewarding.  What you do is you pick a band, preferably a band that has amassed a substantial catalog.  Maybe it's a band you've been meaning to get into and just haven't for some reason.  Sear Bliss is the example I'll be using for this demonstration.  I feel like I need a projector.  Next slide!

So Sear Bliss.  They're a Hungarian atmospheric black metal band, and I noticed they had a record coming out soon.  That's what prompted me to check them out, though I have yet to listen to any of their modern stuff.  I went back to their debut, 1996's Phantoms.  Right up front, I can tell you that this album is superior to the Ben Affleck movie of the same name.  Actually, it's awesome.  Unspeakably awesome.  Allowing for the new one, they have released nine full-lengths, so I predict more diving in the not-too-distant future.

Man, dig that guitar solo in "Aeons of Desolation."  Yowza.  The demonstration is over.  Hey, it's a sleepy Sunday.  What do you want from me?

Blood Capsule #200

This review was requested via Patreon.  If you'd like to request a review (and please do show mercy on me), click HERE.

THE GIANT CLAW (1957)

What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said about irritable bowel syndrome?  I jest, but The Giant Claw does have a sizeable reputation.  Somehow, I had managed to avoid it until last night, and that's not cool.  I was curious to see if it offered anything past an absurd marionette.  The plot gets brownie points for embracing pseudo-scientific piffle.  I love that stuff.  Here, the monster dodges radar detection (it's dodgy alright) with an invisible shield of some sort, as it's composed of anti-matter.  I have no idea what that means, and I'm assuming that director Fred F. Sears didn't either.  Tragically, Sears passed away almost immediately after production wrapped.  My first instinct is to follow that up with a tasteless joke.  Something about talons clutching the coffin.  I don't know; you fill in the blanks.

Side characters broach the topic of folk legends.  This could be one of the first films to introduce a prospective cryptid into the cultural zeitgeist.  So it's worth noting for at least one reason other than...y'know.  I'm trying to focus on anything else, but the ridiculous beastie is making it difficult.  I did notice that most of the dialogue felt natural, which threw me for a loop.  Trivia!  The special effects were very nearly rendered by Ray Harryhausen, but producer Sam Katzman couldn't justify spending that much money.  Well, I hope he's happy.  I'm glad that I watched The Giant Claw myself.  Apart from the obvious, it's business as usual for a budget picture from the 1950's.  That's definitely a good thing.

Random Match Alert

Okay, so this match isn't entirely random.  It's certainly interesting, given the heights to which Rhea has ascended.  As for Io, I think I've made it clear that she's, like, destined to be my wife and stuff.

A book update!

What does my book have to do with The X-Files, you might be wondering?  Absolutely nothing.  I've just been watching a lot of The X-Files lately.  I recently added the Comet app to my Roku, which is where I meet up with Mulder and Scully on a nightly basis.  Man, I love that show.  But you asked about my book, didn't you?  I'm eyeballing a July release date.  Of course, things could always backfire.  I should probably say "sometime this year," but I'm thinking July.  We shall see.

Also, you should know that I'm going to publish the paperback version first.  Kindle will come later, but that's going to take some extra work.  It's a learning process.  Apparently, the online version has to be formatted a certain way.  I won't bore you with the details.  Like I said, it's a learning process.  I'll try to keep everyone in the loop.  That's all for now, kids!

A Band: Weapon

I'll make this direct and to the point, which is fitting because Weapon's music is a direct punch to the gut (the good kind).  Who is Weapon?  They were a blackened death metal band that hailed from Canada, releasing two EPs and three LPs before calling it quits in 2013.  As is usually the case with unsung obscurities, I don't remember how I chanced upon them.  Naturally, Weapon was done kicking ass when I did find out about them.  I'm most familiar with their third album, 2012's Embers and Revelations, but you should know that all of their material is worth scoping out.

So what do they sound like?  I just perused the "Similar Artists" tab on Metal Archives out of curiosity, and I would say the closest touchstones are The Chasm and late-era Rotting Christ.  Also, I'm hearing a hefty dose of Behemoth.  To be specific, I'm hearing shades of Demigod and Zos Kia Cultus.  It's becoming popular in the underground to slag Behemoth, and I don't know why.  That's probably a tangent I should neglect to pursue, but personally, I love those Behemoth records.  Your mileage may vary.  Weapon's tunes are stippled with blastbeats and a generous portion of lead breaks.  If you're a fan of guitar solos, this is the band for you.  And wouldn't you know it?  I'm a fan of guitar solos.

Lyrically, we're in Satanic territory.  I would bemoan the trite themes being dissected here, but at least this stuff is well-written.  As a writer, that's honestly more important to me than the content itself.  So yeah.  Check out Weapon.

The Night Flier

For anyone who cares, this is probably the last full-length (I consider at least four paragraphs to be full-length) review that I'll write for the site.  For awhile anyway.  Reason being, I want them to be reserved for somewhat special occasions.  Plus, working on a book full of Blood Capsules has conditioned my brain to think in terse, laconic terms.  By the way, this is definitely a special occasion.  I love The Night Flier.  It's one of my favorite films of all time (top 5, easily), and as a matter of fact, I thought that I had reviewed it already.  What better way to end Vampire Month than to talk about the most underrated Stephen King adaptation out there?  No one ever mentions it.  Drives me nuts.

The late, great Miguel Ferrer stars as Richard Dees, a character that has surfaced in other King tales.  He's a blood-hungry reporter working for Inside View, a salacious rag most comparable to Weekly World News.  His boss gives him first crack at a story too bizarre to be real.  Some lunatic is flying into desolate airports in the pitch of night and butchering everyone there.  Victims are marked with neck wounds, "holes as big as railroad spikes."  So what's this guy's deal?  Why does he think he's a vampire, and how did he get a pilot's license?  Dees, a pilot himself, is determined to find out.  We spend most of the film with him, and I'm going to need a whole new paragraph to praise Ferrer's performance.

He is such a dick.  Dees has been hardened by life, and as such, he is full of acid words for anyone unfortunate enough to veer into his vicinity.  He pelts poor Katherine, a fresh-faced journalist competing for the front page.  She is played with poise and pathos by Julie Entwisle.  Trivia!  Entwisle married director Mark Pavia not long after shooting wrapped on The Night Flier.  More trivia!  Pavia and King co-wrote a sequel nearly twenty years ago, but the funding wasn't there.  Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.  I need to pat cinematographer David Connell on the back.  Despite a scrawny budget (the film was originally headed for theaters before premiering on HBO), the imagery is crisp.  Prismatic colors bleed off the screen.  Damn near stained my carpet.

I'll level with you.  I'm going to give The Night Flier five Z'Dars, but it's not perfect.  I've seen the thing so many times, I don't see the pockmarks anymore.  For instance, the acting is sketchy from the peripheral players.  A gravedigger here, a hairdresser there...it doesn't add up to much.  The carnage is just gory enough.  The special effects are fantastic, and yes, that includes a nominal amount of CGI.  There are a lot of reasons why I love The Night Flier.  Chief among them?  It's cool.  No, really.  The villain is cool, the basic plot is cool, and even the short story is cool.  Speaking of which, you can find it in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.  You can find The Night Flier pretty much anywhere.  Watch it yesterday.

Album Cover of the Whatever

Vrykolakas is a death metal band based out of Singapore.  No, I don't know how the hell I come across this stuff, but all that matters is the album cover.  And that's a great one!  The music isn't too shabby either.

Blood Capsule #199

VAMPIRE (1979)

I didn't mean to scare up a host of made-for-TV horror movies from the 70's, but here I am.  This time, the network was ABC and the saber-toothed knave was Richard Lynch.  Honestly, it took awhile to warm up to Vampire.  The exposition is pretty dry.  Lynch plays a ghoul whose coffin is disturbed when a church is erected in San Francisco.  One minute, he is rising from the grave, brushing away loose ground and glowering in the direction of an improbably ginormous cross.  The next?  He's dealing in antiques.  It's an abrupt transition, especially considering that we're supposed to be afraid of some dandy being questioned about his art collection.  He says he didn't steal those paintings.  Hey, I believe him, but that doesn't stop the police from detaining him behind bars.  Like I said, the plot is...dehydrated?  Don't turn the channel just yet, though.

If you can stomach the unpalatable first act, the story takes a few detours that you won't see coming.  Well, I didn't see them coming.  The characters actually get a chance to grieve when someone dies, which is something I can't say for most genre treats.  Jason Miller and E.G. Marshall deserve honorable mentions for their performances as an architect and a retired cop, respectively.  It goes without blabbing that Lynch is dignified as all hell.  The pace stutters near the climax.  It's almost not worth mentioning, but I have to wonder if the awkward ending was intentional.  Vampire was technically a pilot for a series that was never developed.  Taken as a stand-alone piece, it's sturdy enough to recommend.  I wouldn't choose it over that same year's Salem's Lot, however.