Human emotion is often difficult to convey through words, so art becomes the perfect channel for those needing to express themselves on a deeper, more intuitive level than glossology alone. War has unfortunately been driving humans to the brink of their emotions since prehistory, but thankfully art has been there even longer to serve as an outlet for those needing to get their fears and frustrations out into the world. French artist Lambwool created Ashes as a necessary response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its profound (and warranted) effect on his mental state, the emotions stirring from current times, as well as the post-war trauma burned deeply into European psyches. This work of dark ambient conveys the cold, brutal essence of this war, but by not getting too mired in the darkness, it presents a hopeful air that can help us all get through dark, terrifying times.

From the early 2020s, Shakespeare's Shitstorm sees Lloyd Kaufman and the Troma team doing their own distinctively crude, wacky, and deranged take on the Bard's play The Tempest. It finds mad doctor Prospero (Kaufman) shipwrecking, via a storm of defecating whales, a boatload of pharmaceutical executives to Tromaville, New Jersey, to carry out his revenge. If you know Troma, this is pretty much business as usual, with self-referential/perverse humour, large-breasted ladies, generally wacky manic-ness, silly musical numbers, and splatter-bound gore. Here from Troma Films is a three-disc release of the film, taking in a UHD, and two Blu-rays, with a good selection of extras

Evil Laugh is a mid-80s slasher with some light touches of humour and ahead-of-its-time postmodern elements. It features a cackling killer, some fairly bloody kills, the most inventive being microwave-based. Sure, it’s not a top-level example of the genre/ plays to the cliches- but it’s engaging enough, and will appeal to fans of the stalk ‘n’ slash form. Here from 88 Films- as part of their Slasher Classic series- is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an HD scan, commentary track from the slasher-loving podcast The Hysteria Continues, and a full-length archive documentary.

The Gospel According To Hana Haruna is a three-track release, which blurs the lines between spiteful ‘n’ searing wall of noise and more drifting/choral ambience. It’s a release that once again sees this Portland project pushing at the edges of the wall noise genre, for something rather distinctive.

Cranial Collapse is a decidedly swirling, yet crude/ nasty take on the walled noise form. The dead-on, twenty-minute track adds in a sparse/ buried spoken word element to create an extra layer of unease to the proceedings.

Music Of The Future is a more formal, dense/ not so multi-layered/ less ambient take on the wall noise form from this US project, which normally focuses on the more playful/experimental side of the genre.

Cutter's Club is a lost film featuring horror legend Tony Todd as a schizophrenic university medical lecturer. In his spare time, he is part of a secret club, where they are (meant to be) pushing the limits of surgery. The film is a Full Moon/ Charles Band film, with one or two neat effects/ moments, and a great OTT performance from Mr Todd. Here’s the Blu-ray release of the film, with just a few extras.

A band’s disappearance in spring 2024 is the springboard for Director’s Cut, a slasher from writer-director Don Capria.

Ms.45 is an early 80's rape/revenge thriller set on the gritty streets of New York City. The film speeds by like a bullet- with the mute ‘n’ timid victim shifting from being traumatised & shellshocked, to a red lipstick wearing/ gun tooting killer. It drops down in horror, manipulative drama, and all-out gonzo exploitation.  Here from Arrow Video, both in the UK and stateside, here’s either a UHD or Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a commentary track, and a good selection of extras

Rejection Sensitive is the second physical album released from Illinois-based noise maker Marc Benner, who also runs the noise/ experimental sound label Oxidation. It’s a four-track CDR, which focuses on textured noise manipulation.

Here’s a C50 split bringing together two side-long wall noise tracks. First, there’s the searing rush, battering billow, to later thick battering walled noise of Puerto Rican's Barrena. And second, we have a dense/overwhelming- yet oddly entrancing slab of walling from Garden Grove, California’s See Through Buildings.

Destry Allyn Spielberg makes her feature directorial debut with 2024's Please Don't Feed the Children, written by Paul Bertino, starring Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Zoe Colletti (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark), and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad). Spielberg previously won Best Thriller at the City of Angels Women's Film Festival in 2022 for her short film Let Me Go the Right Way, so I had some expectations going in.

Composed for Illustrious Labs' 3D audioscape system, Mesmerine 111 focuses on the physiological properties of 111hz on the human brain. Under the moniker Illustrious, Martyn Ware (founding member of The Human League, B.E.F., Heaven 17, et al) and Charles Stooke release two 50-minute 'doses' of Mesemerine 111, the original ambient, trance-inducing treatment and the vocal mix, with its hypnotic spoken word description of the Mesmerine treatment. Whether holistic medicine, ancient ritualism, or new age quasi-science, Mesmerine 111 is an intriguing premise that would definitely benefit more from the fully immersive, 3D audioscape experience.