A full moon stokes the fires of lunacy in all degenerates, criminals, and the mentally ill: any ER nurse or police officer can corroborate this as factual. The nights when the moon is most luminous and full bring out the worst in these people, and I am among them. For days leading up to this … Continue reading “What the Moon Brings”
Assessing a work of art in any medium can be difficult; moreover, not all good artists are good people and the same goes for the reverse. There can be no denying the controversy that Nachtmystium founder Blake Judd’s actions have raised (Google it) but it also should be noted that Judd’s music -especially during the … Continue reading “Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II” – Nachtmystium
I remember first hearing of Krypts when they were recommended as a must-listen some years ago in a social media post by Dragged Into Sunlight regarding heavy music that had piqued the interest of the band. Krypts’ first full length album “Unending Degradation” had just been released, if my memory is accurate. At a glance, … Continue reading “Unending Degradation” -Krypts
Death comes for us all, one way or another, piercing where it might. I remember exactly when I learned that I would die one day when I was a very young child, and my parents showed me the animated film “Charlotte’s Web”, when Charlotte dies. I remember crying and pleading with my parents that … Continue reading Thanatophobia and Other Neuroses
2019 is dead and buried, and has been supplanted by 2020 as the “present year”; time spills forward like a great river, eventually drowning us all, and carrying our waterlogged corpses toward unseen future shores. When and where our journey ends is unknown until we arrive and there is fuck-all that can be done about … Continue reading Flotsam and Jetsam: Onward to Future Shores
Most people who know of Maurice “Mories” De Jong’s music will immediately associate him with his acclaimed project Gnaw Their Tongues, if not his myriad other projects and side projects (Cloak of Altering, Offerbeest, Hagetisse, and Seirom to name a few). Of the latter releases, those branded under the moniker “Aderlating” are among my favorites, … Continue reading “Hell Follows” – Aderlating
The new millennium ushered in a fresh age of darkness for heavy music. At the beginning of this new era, Catacombs was spewed into existence from the depths of the extreme doom metal underground with the January 1st, 2000 release of debut album “Echoes through the Catacombs”. ‘Echoes’ consisted of just two songs, Consigned to … Continue reading “Echoes Through the Catacombs” – Catacombs
This month is a special time of year, so I wanted to touch on something a bit different from my usual fare. That said, of all the albums I associate with October and Halloween, for various reasons, one in particular sticks out like a bleeding red thumb on an otherwise mutilated fist: Cradle of Filth’s … Continue reading “Midian” -Cradle of Filth
Putrescence clings to me; the odious shit-smears of a past I can’t escape, let alone understand, stick to my skin like pine resin. Everything occurs in fragments. There is darkness, and then there is illumination, pictures in my head that I can’t turn off. It’s like flushing a clogged toilet: the muck just keeps rising … Continue reading A Lingering Aroma of Human Waste
Released in the year 2000, “Dead as Dreams” by now-defunct San Francisco black metal band Weakling was -and remains- something special. Dead as Dreams is a desperate, frothing mess of raw, shrill black metal fury, with traces of early Emperor, Satyricon, and other Norse favorites. Vocalist John Gossard’s piercing shrieks cut like a finely honed … Continue reading “Dead as Dreams” -Weakling
Towers of Rust 