Bear

Black Scorpion II: Aftershock - The first one was decent, but here they stepped up their game quite a bit. Unlike the first film, this one doesn't take itself serious at all. Black Scorpion is the same as in the last, but the vast majority of the characters are more cartoonish and there's camp everywhere. Aftershock is a sexy as fuck villain, but the supervillain in the film is Gangster Prankster, a hybrid of the Joker and Two-Face. And even more over the top than both. And I am not even joking. Quite hilarious!

Anyway, liked this.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 & 2 - I'll just review these as one film. I never liked The Hunger Games and from the first film it was always obvious that it was not aimed towards someone like me. But since I watched the first, I had to watch the rest. Thought the entire franchise became better and better as it started focus more and more on the politics, but the characters are lame, the dialogue is poor and Jennifer Lawrence is really off. I actually quite like Jennifer Lawrence, but I don't think she's good in these films. Overly dramatic performance, and every single time she screams in a sad/mad/whiny way it's hard to take it serious.

3/10 to the two first, 4/10 to the two last. Thank god I am finished.

The Accountant - Fun action-thriller with Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick about an autistic accountant that's totally fucking badass. It's not perfect, but it was good and Ben Affleck is really good. I do however wish they had spent a bit more time going in the depth of his autism and so on, but what can one expect from a film like this. Good fun!

A few other releases to look forward in 2018:

Myrkraverk - Nær døden

Myrkraverk have since its birth in 2007 only released two EPs in 2009 and 2011, and now the debut album is here. Both EPs are very good. Flk/black metal inspired mainly by Isengard, with Infamroth from Throne of Katarsis and Skuggeheim.

Deathstorm - Reaping What Is Left

Violent thrash metal inspired by the two first Kreator albums, Morbid Saint and demo/debut by Sadus. The cover art is really disappointing though. 

Previous covers:

Really diggin' these covers. Album should be good anyway.

Happy Death Day - Meta-horror that  is very compearable to films like Scream, The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014), Final Girls, but could just as well be compared to Groundhog Day, The Edge of Tomorrow and so on because of the way the film is built. But at the same time it's very fair to compare it to Mean Girls. Which says all about the film really. A romantic horror comedy that's a bit all over the place and with several big plotholes, but I was genuinely entertained throughout the film. I thought it was really fucking awesome, and Jessica Rothe is brilliant throughout. She's in more or less every single scene and she does a superb job.

This entire film took me a bit off guard in the same way as All the Boys Love Mandy Lane did, but hopefully Jessica Rothe doesn't make the same mistakes as Amber Heard did. I thought she'd get HUGE after her brilliant performance in AtBLMJ, but she kinda didn't.

Anyway, if you like horror-comedies and meta-horrors then check this out.

I'm totally into this as I am somehow a bit of a movie freak, but if you want people to actually do more than to make a list try add some words as to why you like the films you've listed and why people should check 'em out (if they're into that type of films).

I'll come back, even though making a list with 15-25 films is close to impossible. I might choose 25 films today, and yet in a week the list would look very different with 15-20 different films on it. But this'll be fun.

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GosT “Possessor” [2018] 

... With the abandonment of form comes a revolution in essence … 

The Satanic lord of slasherwave returns with his most extreme work to date. GosT "Possessor" is an aggressive demolition of sound and spirit. Following 2016's massive concept album “Non Paradisi”, GosT is no longer carefully escorting the listener on a casual journey through Hell but dragging Hell to the listener and shoving it down their throat. 

“Possessor” takes the perspective of the evil spirit during an exorcism – using trademark buzzsaw basslines, GosT hacks off the limbs of synthwave and leaves it bleeding in his wake. Marked by the demented sounds of the possessed and the panicked, amplified through blastbeats and utilizing GosT's own soothing vocals and tortured, other-worldly screams. This is not an album for the faint of heart. 

A total mindfuck - the most nihilistic, experimental dance album ever recorded. A cross between Anaal Nathrakh and Justice. Classic French house meets post punk meets horror films meets power electronics. 

With a cover photograph by Jason Woodward, the legendary duo Fortifem's contributions are hidden inside. Their incredible drawings line the walls of “Possessor”'s scrolls with three intense, new engravings. 

Protect your neck. Protect your soul. 

RELEASE DATE: March 23rd, 2018 

TRACK LIST: 

1. Possessor 
2. Garruth 
3. The Prowler 
4. Sigil 
5. Loudas Deceit 
6. Beliar 
7. Legion 
8. 16 A.M. 
9. Shiloh's Lament 
10. Malum 
11. Commandment 

Sweet cover and fantastic song. Some surprising elements, but at the core it sounds Gost as fuck.

Anguis Dei released an EP last year and it sounds really good. The band consists of Ur Èmdr Oervn (Arkha Sva, Avsolutized...), Hakuja (Hakuja, Funeral Elegy), Juno Nitta (Juno Bloodlust) and italian drummer Summum Algor (Juno Bloodlust, Adversam). Semi-symphonic melodic black metal with great riffs, superb vocals (with included falsettos!!!), amazing keyboard-work and some stunning guitar solos. It's quite gothic in nature, but never in a very cheesy or boring way. It's more gothic in a dark and twisted way. I am diggin' the shit out of this!

Damn, that's the cover art for the upcoming EP by the recent death metal giants Rude. They've given us two of the finest death metal albums in recent time and I can't wait for this to be released.

I'm really diggin' the new cover art for the upcoming Cist EP too. Like Rude, Cist draws a lot of inspiration from mid-era Pestilence, old Death and old Morbid Angel, although much thrashier. They've been superb up until now, and I don't expect this to be any less.

The Disaster Artist - James Franco will most likely never become a fantastic director, but he's done exceptionally well with The Disaster Artist and he's also turned into one hell of an actor. For those unaware, The Disaster Artist tells the true story of Tommy Wiseau and the making of The Room. I saw it with a couple of friends and we were all laughing throughout the entire film. One of the funniest comedies I've ever seen, but it just offers so much more than simple jokes. It's fantastic on a comedic level, but there's also an amazing story to it all. The story of a proper weirdo, a great friendship and so on.

It's also nice to see that James France has made this the hard way. It would be so easy to just make fun of Tommy Wiseau, but he's actually treating Tommy Wiseau with the greatest respect and paint him more like a weird, socially awkward and misunderstood person in general, than anything else. Which I really liked. No poking fun at Tommy or anything. Fantastic film!

Eastern Condors - Re-watched this masterpiece the other day. It's directed by none other than martial arts-god Sammo Hung (one of my favorite directors of all time!) and it's, like I already said, a masterpiece. It's a very different type of Sammo Hung film tho. The martial arts and great action is present, but it's got more straight-forward action than his usual films. You know, lots of gun and explosions and shit. He takes a lot from The Dirty Dozen, but that doesn't matter. Brilliant cast with Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying, Yuen Woo-ping, Corey Yuen and Billy Chow. Total classic!

Ms .45 - Raw, mean and bleak rape and revenge exploitation thriller about a mute girl who is raped twice on the same day and just looses it. You won't have to watch many minutes before you're reminded of classics like Thriller - A Cruel Picture, Death Wish and Taxi Driver, but it's got something of its own going on for sure. While it's not very violent, it's not for the faint-hearted. The atmosphere is so fucking depressing and destructive. Cult classic!

House of Fury - Silly but very entertaining martial art-comedy. The story is absolute nonsense, but it's got enough action and humour to make up for it. Remote control scene alone makes this film well-worth your time. So well-made and fun.

Rolling Vengeance - A 90 minute long cheese-o-rama about a guy who builds a big, fat, badass monster truck and makes the lives of several rednecks/white trash scum miserable.  It's not great film-making, but it's really fun and badass. Absolutely worth a watch if you're into cheese.

Raw Deal - While not Arnold's best, Raw Deal is a cool action film that offers lots of fun. Simple, straight-forward action with a total badass Schwarznegger.

The Guyver - The first of two films based on the classic manga by the same name. This isn't a very good adaption, but it's a cool enough film in general. Cheesy as fuck, but some really cool monster designs and action. However it's set back by lots of poor attempts at humour and a weak, weak Jack Armstrong in the lead. Mark Hamill however is very good.

Guyver: Dark Hero - For the sequel David Hayter replaced Jack Armstrong, and what a smart choice that was. David Hayter is actually a decent actor. Another thing is that this film is hella lot darker than the first one and more similar to the source material. This is actually a good film. Darker, more brutal and bloodier, and lot funner. This one gained a cult following over the years and it's easy to see why. Very good and cool film.

Hands of Steel - Mid-80's Italian cheese of the highest order. The first thing you'll notice is the cover which looks like a billion. It's so badass! It's complete trash, but it's the kind of trash I cannot get enough of. It's badness is nothing short of beautiful and this is close to perfection for fans of cheap mid-80's exploitation and general trash cinema. Cult as fuck!

Arena - Bloodsport in space. A fucking space-opera-esque version of Bloodsport. It's decent fun, but I wish it was grittier with more blood and gore. But it's a fun watch for what it is.

The Abyss - Re-watched this and I kinda regret that decision. It's technically a fantastic film on every level, but it just didn't do as much for me now as when I was younger. Felt like the atmosphere was lacking and there was just no real suspense or anything. This film could've done with a good monster tbh. But it's a great film otherwise and most people should be able to enjoy the shit out of it.

This album is gonna be so damn good.

Wasn't very impressed by the new Satan's Satyrs myself. A very ordinary track with nothing unique or special to it. Both Wild Beyond Belief! and Don't Deliver Us gave us something new, unique and fresh at the time of release. Die Screaming and this new track does not. It's not bad, but I'll rather listen to Electric Wizard tbh.

For me, I can't hear anything because I don't listen to that song. Still can't tell if that album is a serious attempt at making good music, or if the entire album is a god damned joke.

Watched and finished Westworld last week. I was really looking forward to the series, but due to my immense love for the movie I kinda struggled to see how they were gonna turn this into a long TV-series. But after I was done I was incredibly impressed. I feel like they've broken down the original film(s) and expensed on the original ides into something deeper, more intelligent and unique. Now, I will forever consider the film a masterpiece and better than the series, much of it because the original idea is so original and cool and it's got plenty charm. But this was fantastic tbh!

I loved the performances, the characters, the dialogue, the violence and use of blood/gore, the nudity and so on. Thought it was all-around amazing! Really looking forward to a new season.

Also started on The Deuce. So far so fucking good. James Franco has really turned into a brilliant actor. Watched The Disaster Artist last week (review will come later), and he's just turning into pure gold. Holy shit! He's no longer just this funny guy with the punchable face. He's a seriously talented and loveable guy with a punchable face. Amazing!

Gallhammer - Ill Innocence

Back in 2004 when this band released their debut album there was a lot of hype surrounding them. Main reason was the fact that their debut was a black/doom/crust album that was clearly inspired by Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Amebix, Darkthrone and Burzum made by three Japanese girls who looked as stunning as they looked awesome. But they also did have more to offer, and that more was great music. Dark, gloomy and sludgy doom/crust black metal. This second album contains much of the same, but it is less crusty and black. But it's filled with great vocals, cool riffs, a sweet production and lots of character. It sounds like Gallhammer and no-one else. And it's very varied. From the doomy At the Onset of the Age of Despair to the punky Ripper in the Gloom to the blackened Speed of Blood to the droney Slog. It offers a lot of diversity.

It's a step down from their debut, but a sweet album nonetheless.

Blind My Eyes

Endless Dismal Moan - Ruin

Ruin was Endless Dismal Moan's last album before sole member Chaos 9 committed suicide. An album was released 2 years after his death tho, but it was supposed to have been released before this but was delayed because of some label issues. Anyway, Endless Dismal Moan plays black metal that is pretty hard to get into. We're talking black metal of the weird and semi-original kind, almost touching the industrial at times. The atmosphere is dark, grim, and really fucked up and it's topped off by some really tortured vocals. It's very different for sure.

JYUSO

Fastkill - Nuclear Thrashing Attack

Fastkill's second album just continues down the road they began walking with the first one. Fast and brutal thrash metal in the vein of Morbid Saint, old Kreator, Sadus, Dark Angel and so on. The album is more of the same as the first topped with those wicked screams by Toshio Komori. It's not superbly written or performed, but it's a total badass thrash metal assault that is exactly that: a fun, thrashing album fill with fast, brutal and heavy thrash metal tracks. A step down from their excellent debut, but a fun album nonetheless.

Bloodbath

That's all I had.

Other enjoyable albums so far:

Viölence - MotörDemon

Filthy black/speed metal inspired by Venom, Midnight, Mötorhead, Bathory and so on. Incredibly catchy stuff. "We worship chaos, whisky is our wine, our death is brewed and our witches are divine."

Luzifer - Black Knight

Occult heavy metal in the vein of Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, In Solitude and so on. To be quite honest I've only heard the first track, but it's brilliant heavy metal. And consider the quality of the EP I can only assume that the second track is fantastic too.

New D666 from an upcoming album or EP.  Not quite as good as their previous album, but it sounds good. Very heavy and speed metal sounding, but I get som viking-era Bathory-vibes from it too. The mix is bad tho, but I hope it's better on the actual release.

Track from the upcoming Drudkh album. Sounds great!

Cool. I'll throw in a few amazing metal releases from that year then.

Sigh - Hangman's Hymn - Musikalische Exequien

After years and years of different types of experimentation Sigh  toned it down quite a lot for 2007's Hangman's Hymn, making it their most accessible and easy-listening album since their debut, Scorn Defeat. That however doesn't mean it's not original, because it truly is and you will not find a single album out there that sounds anything like this. The closest you'll come is Sigh's own Scenes from Hell from 2010, the follow-up to this. But even that is very different sounding. Anyway, I mentioned Scorn Defeat and they bear even more similarities than just being their most straight-forward albums. They are also the two albums in the discography in which Mirai and his men showcase their influence a lot more than they've done inbetween the two mentioned albums and after Hangman's Hymn. The tracks are short and furious, but they remain grand symphonic and epic throughout. Riff-vise it's full-on violent, furious and chaotic thrash metal inspired by German thrash like early Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Exumer and more, undearneath symphonic arrangements and choirs inspired by Mozart, Verdi, tivolis and more.

A very interesting detail about this album is how Mirai (band's main composer) re-uses certain themes throughout the album, sometime even in several different tracks. It works really well and is a sweet detail.

I am a bit of a fanboy so you should probably take this with a grain of salt, but it's a perfect album and an absolute masterpiece. The clear winner of 2007 no matter country, genre or anything.

Sigh - Me-Devil

Arkha Sva - Gloria Satanae

Arkha Sva formed in 1996 but didn't get their first demo out until 2005 and their debut album in 2007, which to this date remains their only full-lenght. Arkha Sva plays black metal inspired by the early french scene (Les Légions Noires), the early norwegian scene and probably the finnish scene. The riffs and melodies sounds melancholic and tragic, topped with both grim vocals as well as a shitload of singing in the form of falsettos, which really helps set this band apart from others. The music is more than good enough by itself, but the clean singing just sends it to a whole other level. Makes it stand out from a over-crowded scene where the majority are mediocre clones and rip-offs. 

 A very cool detail is the use of the classic Les Légions Noires calligraphy with permission given by L.N.N. member M.T. Vordb Dréagvor Uèzréèvb (Belkètre, Moëvöt, Torgeist). For those unaware, L.L.N. was a french black metal collective formed in the early 90's by a bunch of black metal/dark ambient fans/musicians who created about a million bands either alone or together. It's about 11 different guys and 20+ bands. Vlad Tepes, Belkètre and Mutiilation are probably the best and most known acts. All three considered cult bands because of their early releases.

Arkha Sva - 49 Evil Spirits

Heidi - Kasou

Heidi's two first albums will forever and ever be among my favourite "jrock/visual kei" albums, and while I do not consider Kasou their best release, it's still a fantastic album full of great, superbly produced songs with a band who, without really doing anything new or original, found their own identity and managed to really sounds different in a scene where most bands and artists seems to be allergic of treading their own paths for the last decade+. Don't expect anything unusual or original, but Nao's way of riffing, Heidi's way of putting fantastic tracks together and the whole chemestry between the members really makes them stand out from the crowd. Another thing I will give Heidi, which I always felt the majority of "jrock/visual kei" artists failed at was to make an album where all songs seems to fit into the same album, and they all seem to have been written with a purpose of making a full album and keep a red thread going through all the tracks for an entire album. That is something I feel like too many bands fail to do in these scenes.

They would get even better and reach their full potential with their next album tho.

Can I add some metal releases here? 2007 saw the release of a lot of fantastic metal albums, some even on the brink of being classics as far as Japanese metal goes.

Quote

The recording and mastering of the new IMMORTAL album is completed.
The band´s upcoming new full-length album has been produced by Peter
Tägtgren (Abyss Studio) who also produced «At The Heart Of Winter",
"Damned In Black", "Sons Of Northern Darkness" and "All Shall Fall"

Demonaz and Horgh comment: 
"We have put a massive amount of energy into this, and wanted to deliver our absolutely best.
It has been a pleasure to finish the studio process and most of all being stoked 
about the final result. Peter Tägtgren has done an outstanding job in producing and 
mixing it. We now look forward to have it released, and are excited to share our 9th 
full length with you all."

The album will be released by Nuclear Blast Records in 2018 (release date will follow)
and will contain the following tracks:

"Northern Chaos Gods", "Into Battle Ride", "Gates To Blashyrkh",
"Grim And Dark", "Called To Ice", "Where Mountains Rise",
"Blacker Of Worlds" and "Mighty Ravendark"

The line-up on the album is:
Demonaz (vocals, guitars)
Horgh (drums)
Peter Tägtgren (session bass)

While remaining a bit sceptical, I cannot deny my curiosity here. I really hope they've gone back in time to a thrashier, darker or grimmer sound.

Burnt Offerings - A fun mid 70's haunted house film. It's not exceptional, but the atmosphere is there, the cast is doing good and the special effects and shit is very good. THAT ending too. Holy fuck!

Creep 2 - I liked the first one, but it took a few years to realize how much I actually liked it. Creep 2 kinda steps the game up. If it is better I do not know, but it is not any worse. But it does take a bit of a different angle, so it's not just a copy of the first one. In the second film we get to get under the skin of Josef, who now goes under the name of Aaron. We get to know him and who is better. Deeper, if not creepier. The horror itself is toned down, but it's got a lot of depth.

Mark Duplass is huge. What an actor!

El Sanatorio - Found footage horror/comedy from Costa Rica. Shot on a super low-budget. It's simple and straight-forward, but it's pretty good. There's some comedic elements that feels very out of place, and there's some which works. But the film as a whole is fairly good. Well worth a watch if you enjoy found footage horror.

Better Watch Out - Last year's best christmas film for sure. Better Watch Out is a psychological horror film with a small, young and unexperienced cast that truly does their best to impress, and they all do impress. I thought this film was fantastic. Can see it gaining a cult status with the years.

Ryde - Uhm... decent horror about a man who takes on the personality of one of his victims and drives around picking up people who need a ride and kill them in violent and sadistic ways. It was an OK watch, but it's basically a torture porn without enough graphic violence. It's never made clear why our main guy acts and does what he does, and all but one character is unlikeable as fuck. Decent, but will not watch again.

The Return of Swamp Thing - The first film is a brilliant horror/sci-fi superhero film, and while this is a fun film, it's not close to the first one. This is more a comedy and they tried to make it campy as fuck, but they tried so hard they took a lot of the fun and charm away. It's just really sloppy and poorly acted throughout.

Pitch Black - One of Vin Diesel's best films. It's become a cult film over the years and for good reason. There's some poor CGI, but the CGI is never out of place or overdone. It doesn't get much screentime. There's some poor acting and so on too, but it's really claustrophobic and the setting makes the entire film feel unique, even by today's standards. Badass as fuck!

On 10.9.2017 at 7:14 PM, Bear said:

 

Takashi Miike live-action adaption of Blade of the Immortal looks so fucking sweet. Miike is the perfect director of a film like this too, as he's gonna make the entire film a big, fucking bloodbath. Can't wait!

So what did people think of this? I though the poster was iffy as fuck, but I knew that if there's one man who could make this cool it's Miike. He just does whatever the fuck he wants and he's not afraid to do his own things and go his own ways. If you ask me I'd say this is his best film since 2003's Gozu, or maybe even his best since 2002's Graveyard of Honor.

I thought this was faithful enough to the source material that the majority of the fans of the manga will enjoy it, and at the same time it was so over the top, bloody, violent and cartoonish that it'll please fans of cult films and with time I am pretty sure this will gain the status as a cult film. The two and a half hours went incredibly fast. Very pleased!

And this. So much better than the original. Superb artwork too.

Master of Puppets never sounded this cool before. Holy fuck!