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Reading the artist/ label write-up for Escaping The Seventh Circle, we find out it’s a journey through The Deep Bleed’s struggle with mental health. It’s a single nearing twenty-minute track- which swirls, drifts, and moves through ambience, subtle noise tones, and other hazed/ distant sonic flotsam ‘n’ jettison.
Speak No Evil is a Dutch/Danish thriller from 2022- which builds from social awkwardness, onto taut uneasiness, through to deeply troubling and soul-searing bleakness. The film got a remake earlier this year, and while there are similarities between the two- I’d say the original is far more harrowing/heart-wrenching. Here from Shudder/ Acon Media International is a bare-bones DVD release of the film.
From Powerhouse here’s a Blu-Ray boxset bringing together two Mexican vampire films from the 1950’s- both films blend mist swirling ‘n’ coffin creaking gothic, suave male and more mysterious female vamps, and a fair bit of action. The set features new 4k scans of both films, a selection of both new/ old extras, and an eighty-page booklet.
A Real Pain In My Neck is a wonderful example of layer-shifting/ darting textured walled noise. The twenty-two-minute wall from this Cincinnati project, most certainly keeps you on your toes, with one's mind getting a workout as you try to keep -up with/ follow the textural layers/ threads.
Crusade is a single thirty-five-minute ride into constantly rolling, baying, and churning walled noise from this UK project.
Witch Burning features two thickly brutalising ‘n’ rapidly battering examples of the HNW form from this long-running California project. Both tracks come in at dead on the half-an-hour mark, and both are as intense as each other.
Giallo Movie Posters Vol 1 is a wonderfully glossy and brightly colourful celebration of the early years of the most stylish of all horror/ thriller genres. The just over two-hundred-page book focuses on the years between 1961 and 1968, with often multiple different posters for films both notable and more obscure.
As mysterious as what's beyond the cosmos, Abschwörzunge unleashed their debut EP, Whorl, on I, Voidhanger this November. Four tracks of bleak and punishing death metal blast forth heralding the coming of a new force in cold, cosmic extremity, make extra dark with flourishes of black metal. While the band's members, provenance, or history are unknown, one thing is for certain; this EP makes desolation and emptiness sound fantastic.
Howl is the first-ever proper sonic pairing between two of Britain’s key experimental moody setters. The album features two lengthy tracks, which nicely move through a fair bit of rewarding sonic territory- shifting well between the abstract and the atmospheric- making this one of the great instrumental albums of 2024.
Cello player Oliver Coates is an experienced touring musician who released his debut solo recording in 2013. Throb, Shiver, Arrow of Time is his latest work, released this year in 2024 on Rvng Intl.
The Shape of Night (1964) is a limited edition Blu-ray release from Radiance, and, as I’ve said in a few reviews now, I only have a promo disc but am happy to guarantee that the release proper will look great: Radiance really are one of the best in the game now. So, the full release comes adorned with stylish packaging, accompanied by a booklet featuring new writing by Chuck Stephens.
During the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, the sword and sorcery film genre was hugely popular. As with any popular genre it was split into sub-genres- there were even blends of action and fantasy, more horror-fed or erotic takes, or films that focused more on one facet of the genre. The Sword And The Sorcerer very much sits in the last category, as it focuses squarely on the action-bound/ swashbuckling side of the genre. The 1982 film was helmed by infamous low-budget/direct-to-video action director Albert Pyun- it’s a pacey & pulpy ride of a film, with sword fights a-plenty, a dastardly villain or two, a wise-cracking ‘n’ stubby hero, a maiden in distress, with a light sprinkling of sorcery/fantasy.
Tomie is a decidedly heady ‘n’ creepily woozy mix of psychological drama, mystery, crime-triller, and supernatural horror- all scored with a mix of hazy to eerier electronica & looped field recordings. The Japanese film appeared in the late 90s and is often put in the J-horror bracket, and while elements of the film do fit into that genre, there is so much more wonderfully unhinged going on here. From Arrow Video- both in the UK and stateside- here's a Blu-Ray release of the film taking in a new commentary track and a few other extras.
Abduction Of The Innocent (aka Stockholm Syndrome) is a blend of grim thriller and torture-bound horror focusing on human slave trafficking. The early 2000s film is a low-budget affair- with decidedly mixed gore effects and acting- moving between fairly distributing/ troubling, to badly amateurish & somewhat muddled in its plot/ focus. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a bare-bones DVD release of the film.
From the early 1970s Juggernaut is a blend of disaster movie and psychological thriller, with some great moments of suspense/tension, and odd touches of humour. The film focuses on a blackmailer who has placed seven bombs aboard the transatlantic liner Britannic-which is carrying 1200 passages and crew. It blends on-board footage, with back in London police investigation, and taut office interactions- all making for an entertaining, at points hellish tense picture. Here from Eureka is a new Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a new scan, commentary track, and a few other extras.
Directed by Benjamin Christensen (Seven Footprints to Satan, The Devil’s Circus and House of Horror), Haxan is a film from 1922 that doesn’t neatly fit into any category, it’s part documentary, part dramatisation of images of occultism and part exploitation movie. More importantly, it’s an atmospheric masterpiece of dark gothic imagery that has influenced so much of what has gone on to become integral to our modern perception of what represents horror’s key touchstones from Mario Bava and Hammer to Evil Dead and The VVitch.
Flowers Of Emptiness brings together eight modern chamber pieces from Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith. All of the works are delicate and often sparse affairs, which move with fraught, felt, and glum melodies- with the whole lot being played by the highly respected modern ensemble Apartment House.
Near Distant is a three CD/three-plus hour journey in Michelle Lou’s sound worlds. The San Digo-born composer's work sits somewhere between electro-acoustic and modern composition, with touches of saw/ grating industrial texturing, moments of all-out noise sear, as well as gloomy to doomed atmospherics.
CEL, the duo of Hubert Zemler and Felix Kubin, head to Gagarin Records to put out five previously unreleased live tracks. Five Minutes to Self-Destruct contains four songs from 2024 and one from 2020, all remixed by Jan Wroński. Although varying in style over each live action, each piece here keeps to a similar vibe, putting fun, energetic electronic music as top priority. As this 12" EP, it is on the shorter side, but the brightness calls for repeated back to back spins, allowing the listener to really develop a great rapport with the material on hand.
Fear of the Object is a collective, of sorts, who perform live together, bonded by a shared spirit of investigation into the resonant frequencies of certain objects. Some of these include traditional instruments – cello, double bass, synthesizers – while others include the more esoterically named "vibrating membrane". Leaves Never Fall in Vain is a recording of one of their concerts, chopped into three short snippets and one very long, meandering piece. While the recorded results share little in common, the happening-like conditions and methodology behind the album is reminiscent of the heady days of AMM and Musica Elettronica Viva, with their explorations of tools and media that would effectively suspend, or at least problematize, the subjectivity of each performer/participant.
With a 2024 film having a title like The Stalking, you’d imagine some form of retro-focused stalk ‘n’ slash afair-but it’s far from that!. What we have here is a pulpy, low-budget and fun slice of pumpkin pie horror. The film is set around Halloween- bringing together an evil witch, killer sunflowers, a bullied ‘teen’, and a reanimated scarecrow. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a Blu-Ray release of the film, taking in a director's commentary.
Nordvargr might be a name not altogether familiar in the UK, but to say that the Swedish musician is anything but ultra-prolific would be an understatement. Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk assumed his middle name as an alias for what is nearly forty years spent blending metal, electronic and industrial music. His current Resignation project, ongoing for over fifteen years, is Nordvargr’s (very successful) attempt at dark ambient soundscaping metrically infused with repetitive beats. Two years on from the release of the Resignation trilogy box set, his latest instalment Resignation 4 picks up where its predecessor left off – bringing together dark techno, industrial ambient and electronic soundscapes in one highly cinematic combination.
Blasting from the crypt with their second album of 2024, Sweden's Carnal Savagery keep death, gore, and grime alive with Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones. Tallying six albums in four years, Carnal Savagery's release schedule is fast and furious, and this is perfectly echoed in their rousing, pummeling death metal. Channeling their old-school past (fmr Cromlech) and roots, this latest continues to push rejuvenated, old-school death rife with that Swedish sound that has become beyond legendary. Thick, meaty riffs and fast, aggressive drumming keep this one moving and their grim breakdowns add just the right levels of beefiness to keep the listener coming back for more.
From the late 60’s The Red-Light Bandit stands as one more experimental re-telling of a true crime case. The film features a fragmented narrative and darting structure, mixing elements of crime thriller, satire, and anarchic artiness. It was based on the case of João Acácio Pereira da Costa- who in São Paulo in the 60s committed four murders, seven attempted murders, and seventy-seven robberies, receiving a sentence of three hundred and fifty-one years, nine months, and three days in prison. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray reissue of the film- taking in a 2k scan, a few extras, and a selection of short films.