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First released in the late 1990’s, Hail Horror Hail stands as one of the most unpredictable, at times jarring, and creatively demented black metal albums of all time. The nine-track affair blends BM/ metal stylings with rapid jumps/ darts into other genres, for a true sonic ghost train/ rollercoaster experience. Here on, Peaceville is a recent two-CD reissue of the album. On the first disc, there’s the original album and on the second disc are ten tracks- bringing together a selection of unreleased/ rough mixes and promo tracks.
First released in 1997, Ghastly Funeral Theatre was the beginning of Sigh’s shift into more avant-garde/experimental black metal. It was originally released as an EP, but here on Peaceville is a recent two-CD reissue of the release. On the first disc, there’s the original six-track EP, and on the second disc are seventeen tracks- bringing together a fascinating selection of covers, unreleased/ rough mixes, and promo tracks.
Prenez Votre Ticket (Take Your Ticket) is one of the longer examples of the wall form I have heard in some time. Clocking in at one hour and twenty-four minutes, the single track is all about creating a huge, murky, and rather abstract sound world, where bass-bound judder ‘n’ roll meet cluttering billows, shredding static fields, and sweeping sear blends.
Limbic System & Nostalgia finds this Oregon-based project serving a thirty-minute slice of compacted & bass-bound walled noise. The whole thing has a wonderful constricting at times crude, quality about it, feeling akin to being wrapped in a thick blanket as a bunch of horses constantly gallop over you.
Polish director Jan Komasa’s first English-language film, The Good Boy (2025), also known as Heel, is a darkly comic thriller with an eye on society. The opening scenes, when we’re invited out on a night out with Tommy (Anson Boon), leave us in no doubt that he’s a delinquent and an anti-social problem—the question is, can and should something be done about him?
The Last Match is a 1991 action movie directed by Frabrizio De Angelis (Deadly Impact, Killer Crocodile and the Thunder trilogy). For a cheap movie, it has a pretty stacked cast including Ernest Borgnine (Escape from New York, The Poseidon adventure and The Devil’s Rain), Olive Tobias (‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, The Stud and the Dad’s Army movie), Charles Napier (Rambo, Supervixens and Silence of the Lambs), Henry Silva (The Manchurian Candidate, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai and Above the Law) and Martin Balsam (All the President’s Men, Psycho and 12 Angry Men).
No Hope is album number two from Maginot- a project that brings together Frenchman Romain Perrot (Vomir, Trou Aux Rats, Free As Dead, Roro Perrot), and Brit Paul Hegarty (Safe, author of Noise/Music: A History). I must say it’s a difficult album to put under one genre, as the three-track album blends da-da doom/ avant jazz, sluggish/ spastic noise rock with mumbled vocals, and found sound/loose jamming.
Upward Curve is a CD box set bringing together all the 1970’s work released by the British fusion band Isotope. The four-disc set takes in three albums, BBC live recordings, and rare tracks. The material here goes from knotty, complex and raw. To more groovy & atmospheric fare.
The Assassin of the Tsar (aka Tsareubiytsa) is a 1991 Soviet historical drama from writer/ director Karen Shakhnazarov (Zerograd, Day of the Full Moon and White Tiger). The film stars legendary English actor Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Cat People and Caligula), Oleg Yankovskiy (Nostalgia, The Lover and Come Look At Me), Armen Dzhigarkhanyan (Vanished Empire, Hero Quest and Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat) and Yuriy Sherstnyov (Zerograd, Master I Margarita and Hamilton).
Here we have the sixth in Imprint's excellent Essential Film Noir box sets. The Blu-ray box set features four films dating from between the mid to late 1950’s. As with the other sets in the series, we get a nice selection of different takes on the noir genre. We go from a police drama-focused thriller. Onto a circus performing drama, escaped madman thriller, and noir blend. We have a mix of noir, romantic drama, and island/ holiday set adventure. And finally, a Bahamas-based melodrama and noir mix,
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz is a mid-1950s Mexican-set psycho drama/ pitch black comedy from key cinematic surrealist Luis Buñuel. It regards a well-to-do pottery, his psychotic tendencies, and whether or not he’s a murderer. The film blends skewed/ mocking drama with moments of woozy macabreness, uneasy surrealism, and almost giddy derangement. Here from Second Run is a new Blu-Ray- featuring a 4k scan, a selection of video essays, and a few other things.
Crafting ritualistic rebirth and psychological transformation through drones, analog synths, and varied ambient textures, Nam-Khar's latest has the artist leading the listener through alchemical transformations of sound through a Jungian lens. What sounds like a lot of paper is easily understood by the body when Antimon begins to play. The seven parts present a meditative ambient that allows the listener ample opportunity for introspection, the music serving as a boatman through the stygian rivers of the mind.
Latrodectus Mactans is a thirty-three-minute slab of grinding, rumbling, and shunting walled noise from this Russian project. As with all of this projects work- it’s themed around a form of spider- this is the subject Latrodectus Mactans, aka the black Widow, or Shoe Button Spider. It’s native to North America and is venomous.
Faint Imprint Of A False Deity severs up three walls, each blends crude ‘n’ crusty weight with smaller jittering ‘n’ juddering detail. Each wall hits dead on the twenty-minute mark, and I believe this is my first taster of the work of this Utah project.
Here’s a wall noise split bringing together two US projects- Florida’s Ivan Reash, and Portland’s Hana Haruna. Each party offers up two twelve-minute tracks- the formers are rather churning ‘n’ numbingly pummelling affairs, while the latter are all about dense grind ‘n’ sear.
Here’s a wall-noise split bringing together Florida’s Wilting GOd and Turin’s Rumonoise. Each party offers up a thirty-minute track that’s both seared and dense in their takes on the walled noise form.
Here’s a new twenty-five-minute wall from Cincinnati’s Whore’s Breath. And as we’ve come to expect from the project, it’s another creative take on the form- mixing rewarding textual detail with atmospheric unease.
Only Human is a progressive/alternative metal band from Denmark that I might describe as similar in style to the latest Karnivool album, In Verses, that came out this year, in that it combines the directness and emotionality of radio-friendly metal with more advanced musicianship and ambitious song structures. This album, Planned Obsolescence, appears to be their first release, on the ethereal extreme metal label Season of Mist. I'm a bit surprised, but not dismayed, to hear music like this coming from that label
In this epic volume, the follow-up to Armin Junge’s much-acclaimed Banzai! Japanese Cult Movie Posters, the writer once again takes us into Japanese cinema poster heaven.
Accident Fantôme is the portmanteau for the project of two otherwise autonomous, established musical duos, Accident du Travail and Fantôme Josepha. United by shared interests in historical instruments and long-form, ambient drone composition, the four gathered in an old church in a village just west of Metz (where some of the group are based) early last year to perform and record together.
Here’s a CD serving up three works for flute composed by Italian avant-garde/ modern classical composer Luigi Nono (1924- 1990), with a fourth by Nono collaborator Roberto Fabbriciani, who also plays flute/ piccolo here. The sound on offer here is a nice mix of moodily seared, eerily abstract, and tautly ambient, with a great use of compositional space.
Revolutions is a long-form drone work from American composer/guitarist David First for twelve players. It’s based on the 16th through 32nd harmonics of the note G—a sound world, which resides largely outside of traditional Western musical instruments and training.
The Hazing is an entertaining ‘n’ fast-moving mix of horror, dark fantasy, and comedy. The early 2000’s film regards a group of pledges being sent to a creepy mansion for an initiation. But instead of pranks & tricks, they come face-to-face with a body jumping demon, that is focused on killing them all….think like if Hell Night and The Evil Dead had a straight-to-VHS baby. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a bare bones DVD release of the film.
Forbidden World (Mutant) is an early 80’s shot of camp, gooey, gory, and sleazy Sci-fi horror. It’s largely set within the confines of a science facility on a desert alien planet. The film has a great breakneck pace, with moments of jerky/ jarring visual collage- flashing back & forth through the picture's timeline. From 88 Films, here’s a new dual UHD and Blu-Ray release of the movie. It features two versions of the film, three commentary tracks, and a good selection of extras.