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The Fires (2025) is an Icelandic disaster thriller directed by Ugla Hauksdóttir (Alien: Earth), who co-wrote the screenplay with Markus Englmair (Blood and Milk), based on the novel by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir. The film stars Vigdís Hrefna Pálsdóttir (The Valhalla Murders) as volcanologist Anna, alongside Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones), Joi Johannsson (True Detective), Sigurður Sigurjónsson (Rams), and Ingvar E. Sigurdsson (The Northman). After 800 years of dormancy, Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula erupts without warning, forcing Anna to navigate both a volcanic catastrophe and the chaos threatening her country
First released in 1998 on Repulse Records, Destined To Fail was the lone studio album from Massachusetts death metal band Scattered Remnants. The eight-track album offered up a brutal, bleakly simplistic at times grooved take on DM form, with some effective jarring tonal shifts, and a few more creative/ experiential touches.
Black Rabbit, White Rabbit is a 2025 Tajikistan/UAE production that blurs the lines between drama, mystery and dark comedy, with light touches of fantasy and playful surrealism. It regards three interwoven stories: a middle-aged prop master concerned about a gun, an aspiring actress trying to sneak on set. And a bandaged woman who was involved in a car crash, has a bossy/ unpredictable husband, and believes she has the power to move things with her mind. The film's a wonderfully intriguing/unpredictable/ at times mind-bending ride- all wrapped in a meta bow, so you're often unsure what is real & what is not. Here from Deaf Crocodile is a Region 1 Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a commentary track, visual essay, short films by the director, etc.
Dummy is the 100th film directed by American low-budget horror/ sci fi director Mark Polonia. It regards a troubled/ once famous Ventriloquist- played by a long-term collaborator Jeff Kirkendall- who takes his life, transfers his angst and anger into his dummy Chucklehead. The small-town set picture blends elements of supernatural drama/ light thriller, slasher, and low-key comedy.Here from SRS Cinema is a DVD release of this 2026 film, taking in the always worthy director's commentary from Mark, a pitch video, trailer and trailer reel.
The rather curiously named Lemming Project were a German Death Metal band from the early 90s. They released two albums on the legendary Noise label, which served up a crusty- yet progressive sound that brought in industrial, discordant, and grimly experimental elements. Here from Cherry Red’s Dissonance Productions is a two-set bringing together the band's two albums on Noise- 1991’s Extinction and 1992’s Hate & Despise.
Light Again is a two-CD set bringing together the two albums released by talented British Indian fusion guitarist Gary Boyle in the late 1970s. He’s best known for setting up the four-piece fusion/ jazz rock band Isotope- though he also did session work with the likes of Keith Tippett, Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Stomu Yamashta, Bert Jansch and Norma Winstone.
Here’s a 2025 psychological thriller from director Jennifer E. Montgomery, who co-wrote the script with cinematographer Andrew Davis, This Tempting Madness is a committed take on a familiar tale of paranoia, mistrust and a breakdown of reality.
The Slasher genre’s true home is the USA, as most of its key developments have occurred there, along with many of its most notable films & franchises. But other countries have also made stabs at the genre too, and I’d say Norway's Cold Prey trilogy is one of the most known/ effective of these. Here from Second Sight is a classy/ definitive reissue of the trilogy. The three-disc Blu-ray set comes presented in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by James Neal. It features a one hundred and twenty-one-page book with new essays by Matt Donato, JA Kerswell, Justin LaLiberty, Paul Lé’s Ariel Power-Schaub and Nathaniel Thompson. As well as five collectors' art cards. Each film gets a new commentary track, and a decent selection of extras too.
Life is full of repeating patterns and cycles, be they from the Earth and Moon, our natural beings, or those we create in our day-to-day. Extend this out, and one can see a city come to life, following its own patterns and cycles, built upon thousands (or more) simultaneously running and moving cycles of its denizens. Nonturn takes these repetitive city cycles, repurposes their sounds, and structures them into a new, 96 BPM cycle for Repeating Town. Capturing the machines, footsteps, sounds, and rhythms of Koenji, Tokyo, Nonturn builds an intriguing new city life via experimental electronic music. Rearranging the recorded sounds to form something musical from nothing, this dada-esque reconstruction makes art from the repetitive chaos of the city routine
Enlightened Depths is a one-hour slab of rolling bass- boil and tumbling static-based wall noise from this French noise maker. The digital release appears on Poland’s Gates Of Hypos.
Gritcore is a new two-track HNW release from Norfolk Trotter- aka Norwich’s Michael Ridge (Acerbitas, Zebra Mu, Dial-Up Summer Breeze). Each ‘wall’ runs between thirty and forty minutes, and has been created by playing sandpaper on a modified turntable.
Now here's a ‘wall’ noise track that manages to blend panic and brooding dread rather well. The around-hour-long creation finds this Stuttgart, Germany-based project serving up something fairly interesting in the wall noise form
Here’s an electro-choppy, grain-juddering, and at points texturally unpredictable example of the wall-noise form from Cincinnati's Whore’s Breath. The single track slides in at just under the forty-five-minute mark and is proof once again why this is one of the most consistent, at times experimental projects operating within walling today.
Mata Hari is the first release I’ve heard in a little while from this Everett, Washington-based wall noise project. Though going from their Bandcamp page, they have been fairly active of late. The digital release features a single twenty-five-minute track- bringing together a galloping low end with crispy clappings ‘n’ cluttering clusters of mids.
Hazy Purple is a rather organic-meets-electronic take on the walled noise form. The just under thirty-nine-minute track from this Polish project certainly feels both weathered-worn & electro-twitchy- all to create a fairly distinctive bit of ‘wall’ craft.
The trio of Matthew Putman, Hill Greene and Francisco Mela have one previous album, on 577 Records, titled Believe That Was Me, and has now put together this second album for the same label, Bright Sun Outside. Their music is improvisatory jazz, so perhaps one might call it 'free jazz', but it is certainly not unmusical, with plenty of melody and structure to be found, and spirited bursts of spontaneous activity that break out of that, as well. This album draws primarily from late 60's and early 70's hard bop, my favourite era of jazz, with rapid tempos, agile figures, and a great avalanche of frenzied notes. The forty-nine-minute album consists of nine pieces which range from two to nearly ten minutes.
Long before the current wave of musings on the ruinous city, before actual skyscrapers were sliding into oblivion, there were those Continental intellectuals who worried about the new metropolis as a monument to amnesia more than cultural advancement. Fast forward to the present, and ruins are again everywhere, this time around, according to sonic polymath Lawrence English, as spurious expressions of nostalgia. And like those before him, English ties this disingenuous form of remembering — nostalgia — to the past, but more importantly, to impoverished visions of the future. English gives this all a name: Acid Nostalgia. His most recent album, The Rest Is My Ghost, is a corrective and critique of the poverty of future thinking, and in typical fashion, English crafts a captivating work of abstraction and ambience filled with moments of tension and conflict, refusing easy resolution or premature release.
Scream Dream is an ultra-low-budget slice of 1980s heavy metal horror shlock. It’s a SOV offering from long-time active horror ‘n’ sleaze merchant Donald Farmer (Cannibal Hookers, Red Lips, Shark Exorcist, Scream Queens Weenie Roast )- focusing on a long-clawed, horned, and big-teethed demon connected to a up & coming/ female fronted metal band… and every time they roll into town, fans seem to disappear. Here from Visual Vengeance is a recent Blu-ray featuring directors' commentary, a few interviews, and a heavy metal horror primer.
The words classic or important are often bandied about, but I think it is fair to say both are very fitting for A Bay of Blood. The early 1970’s film was very much influenced/ help define the slash genre- it’s also a twisting ‘n’ turning mystery and darkest of dark comedies with brutal/ creative effects, and a gleeful sense of the macabre. Here from Severin is a five-disc release of the film- it features three different versions of the picture, four plus hours of extras, and a full soundtrack CD.
God Of Frogs is a 2026 anthology with a rather distinctive/ original focus. The stories featured are told over a near eighty-year period, with the interlocking theme of frog & human hybrids. It’s certainly a curious and original venture- blending elements of horror, sci-fi, and dark comedy. Here from Miracle Media/MVD is a bare-bones release of the film.
Released in the early 70s, Pink Narcissus is both an important and daring art film, as well as an impactful piece of homoeroticism. It charts the daydreams/ fantasy of a male prostitute, the seventy-one-minute film utilising an otherworldly colour palette, a hazy, hallucinogenic, though at times rewarding, unfolding, and a general air of lush & sensual unpredictability. Here, rather surprisingly, from the BFI is a Blu-ray release of the film. It features a new 4k scan, a new introduction, a few archive extras, and for this first edition Illustrated booklet- with new & old essays, etc.
Formed in 2021 by Ian Lynch (Lankum), One Leg One Eye has been the side project that allows him to experiment and explore different musical paths. Rooted in the sound of second-wave black metal, And Take The Black Worm With Me is a massive departure from what Lynch has previously recorded with Lankum. Merging found sounds and field recordings with drones and black metal vocals, And Take the Black Worm With Me is a unique-sounding record. The album features Ian on hurdy gurdy, uillean pipes, synth, vocals shruti box, concertina, guitar, found sounds and tapes, alongside Laurie Sue Shanaman on vocals and Ruth Clinton on church organ
Scottish composer and sound artist J. Quimby has created a new project, Rhins, to reassess the musical focus and emotion of his earlier years and bands, and give them new life and direction through analog synthesis, destruction, reconstruction, and other varied means of production. His second release, The Invisible, has seven tracks based in ambient, venturing out into harsher and more experimental areas through layering and destruction. The resulting album is an engaging ebb and flow of emotion and sound, with Rhins able to better communicate with the world through music than with words.
Across..In Grief And Detail features three pieces by American composer Michael Hersch. His work here is a tense, searing, and often jarring take on modern classical composition, with brief flurries of grace & grander. Two of the works feature uneasy to intense soprano, but all three highlight a composer who likes to create jarring and unpredictable work.