Bear

And if you're like me and don't mind clones I highly recommend these two bands as well:

Neither as good as Black Magick SS, but both surely does a good job channeling the same atmosphere and feeling. Highly recommend both bands.

The black psychedelic rocket in Black Magick SS is back, cleaner, more polished and softer than ever before, but still with incredibly catchy and awesome. This time around they sound a bit more early 80's than 60's, but that makes it fresh. This is still 100% Black Magick SS, and it's totally awesome. Top 10 contender for 2020 for sure.

82 is a respectable age, but having suffered from lung cancer shit must've been bad. A legend and a proper innovator. The shit he did with House, as his first film at the age of 34 or something, is insane and absolutely groundbreaking at the time. Not only as a director, but as special effects guy. Still some of the best and coolest special effects ever created.

We Summon the Darkness - This movie follows in the steps of The Babysitter, Summer of 84 etc. in that it's a very 80's movie, although it never feels quite as authentic as the mentioned movies. But We Summon the Darkness is a nice homage to the 80's and the subject of satanic panic. It's predictable and all, but it's really fucking entertaining throughout. Also, it features a Mercyful Fate song, which in itself is beyond awesome.

I also feel like it paint a really nice picture of pastors who takes a bit money here and there for themselves. Don't think that's unusual for pastors of christian belief. The amount of pastors walking around in $10k outfits nowadays is rather shocking. Preaching lies in $10k outfits? Ridiculous.

Camp Cold Brook - Decent ghost story movie that is fun, but lacks something to make it stand out. Decent fun, but that's it.

Sea Fever - Very cool horror/sci-fi movie that disappoints a bit, while still impressing a lot. It's fun, tense and suspenseful, but I wish it went a bit more over the top on the horror side of all. But it's fun.

On 4/10/2020 at 10:20 AM, Jigsaw9 said:

@Bear Thanks for the recommendation! Truth be told, I haven't even finished Ash vs Evil Dead back in the day, so I'm way far behind, lol...

That is shocking, mate. Easily one of the best series ever made, and it really does capture the feeling of the original movies (especially Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness). First season is fun, but feels a bit off. But it's basically just there to put the characters in place and to bring good old Ash back. From season two onward it's just horror-comedy perfection. And the special effects gets way, way better as the series progress as they use more and more practical effects from season 2.

Season 1 - 8/10

Season 2 - 10/10

Season 3 - 10/10

This series is must watch for fans of Evil Dead, Bruce Campbell and horror-comedies.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil - This is basically Deathgasm meets Ash vs Evil Dead meets Superbad meets Cheech and Chong meets Buffy. That's a fair comparison IMO. This is easily one of the funniest TV-shows I've ever seen. Absurd and over the top, crude, kinda childish, loads and loads of creativity and plenty awesome special effects. It's just really fucking awesome, and exactly what a "mainstream" horror-comedy should look like. Amazing!

Shame about the cancellation, and although it did get a finish with an animated movie it still sucks. I'm gonna watch the animated movie of course, but I'd rather have a live-action movie tbh. Lovely characters and actors.

Finished Stan Against Evil season 3 and thought it was pretty damn good. It's a different season than the two first, and gone are most of the Ash vs Evil Dead elements. Instead of goes into the land of parody and homage, and I'd say that X-Files and Kaiju (Mothra, King Kong etc) are the most obvious ones. But it's a shame that it got cancelled after this, because this is where it really found its own thing. But overall a really good series.

Started on Todd and the Book of Pure Evil and loving it so far. Absolutely hilarious, and with some pretty cool special effects and shit. Looks like this might be something for fans of Deathgasm. Loads of similarities in both the tone of horror and comedy. Something for you @Jigsaw9 ?? I am laughing my ass off at this shit. Awesome!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - I don't get it. Michael fucking Dougherty is making a Godzilla movie with Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and motherfucking King Ghidorah, and it's fucking boring? How the fuck is that possible? One could say it's because they spend the entire movie focusing on the humans and their actions, but that kinda isn't it because Godzilla movies has done that since forever. However, they use something like 110 out of 130 minutes focusing on humans, which can be fine, but the human characters are so poorly written, the story around them is so fucking uninteresting, and the villain is like a poorly written, over the top character that's spoofing the worst James Bond villains out there. And top that with tons and tons and tons of boring, soulless CGI. Oh yeah, and don't forget poor monster designs. Final thought: I didn't enjoy a single thing in this movie. While there's technically worse Godzilla movies out there, they at least have something to laugh at. This was just incredibly boring and soulless.

BTW. Why is it that most of the monster fights are cut to death? What's the fucking point? Not only are they poorly constructed to begin with, but they're cut to death as well. Sums up this film. A piece of embarrassingly bad kaiju cinema.

Hard to Kill - Classic Steven Seagal action that's really stood the test of time. Not his best, but it's cool as hell. A bit over the top, a bit silly, and really damn cool.

Marked for Death - Another classic Steven Seagal movie. Hard as balls, and I really love the over the top Jamaican bad guys. They're really nice. The movie is awesome.

Out for Justice - Another Steven Seagal classic, and his third best movie following Above the Law and Under Siege. Really nice and violent, really cool and in its own way stylish. Damn awesome film! William Forsythe does a proper good performance as our main villain 

Richie Madano. Top performance!

5 minutes ago, Jigsaw9 said:

What a magnificent cover! I should start actually listening to these guys, as I've been promising myself since seeing them live, like 4 years ago, lol.

The cover art for With Primeval Force is also damn fucking awesome! This band is a must if you're into old school death/thrash.The Vampire demo is one of my all-time favourite death metal releases, and the debut album kinda follows that pattern of death thrash. Not nearly as good sounding as the demo, but it is what it is. With Cimmerian Shade they started to "experiment" a bit with more progressive and epic elements, compared to the straight-forward death-thrash of their earlier outputs. With With Primeval Force they included even more of these epic elements, but without adding tons of synth to the mix. It's just a weird, darkly epic feeling over it. Castlevanian death/thrash.

I still think the demo is their best work, and while I did dislike the album when it was released (mainly because it sounds a bit tame and doesn't sound nearly as raw and aggressive as the demo), it has grown on me a bit since then. Not a bad album at all.

Vampire - Rex

After a brilliant demo, but pretty damn weak debut album, Vampire has slowly gotten better again with a good EP and a really good album in the form of With Primeval Force which sounds like a mix of old Possessed, Celtic Frost, Kreator, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and Castlevania soundtracks. And with an album like that I just can't help but have massive expectations to this.

The Heat - I've never understood Paul Feig's fascination with Melissa McCarthy, as she's usually not fun or good at all. But there's always exceptions to the rule, such as Spy where she did well, although Jason Statham stole the show in a role that was very different from the ones he usually play. The Heat was also, to my big surprise, an exception of that rule. She does well, although Sandra Bullock steals the show as this sassy, over-confident FBI agent. The story is familiar and all, but it was a surprisingly fun and well put together buddy cop. Crude, dirty and fun. Liked it.

Above the Law - Decided to re-watch some of the oldest Steven Seagal movies and started with his first, the 1988 harder-than-motherfucking-steel-action movie Above the Law. Steven Seagal is as hard as they get, assisted by the always so amazing Pam Grier, the legendary Henry Silva etc. This movie is incredible and holds up really good to this day. Hard as steel!

A Bluebird in My Heart - Slow-burning, intimate crime-noir about a guy just out of prison. This is the type of movie that require ones attention, and it requires that one enjoys slow-burning movies that's 90% about the atmosphere and visual style. Roland Møller puts in one hell of a performance. He carries this film without any problems at all.

Stan Against Evil season I & II - I was devastated when Ash vs Evil Dead was cancelled and have been wanting someone to pick it up, make a sequel movie or just some fucking comics based on what was supposed to become the fourth season, but that shit haven't happened yet. But I am still hoping. In the meantime I found this little gem. I'm tempted to call this an cheap man's Ash vs Evil Dead, or just an Ash vs Evil Dead light, because that's what it is. But it's a lighthearted, fun, monster of the week horror-comedy with a brilliant John C. McGinley in the lead as Stan. It's not quite Ash vs Evil Dead, but as that is one of my all time favourite series I did not expect that either. But each season consists of eight 20 minutes long episodes of cheesy fun. The biggest drawback is the special effects. At times brilliant, practical fun, but at other times awful CGI is used. But it's fun. Really liking this. Gonna watch season 3 as soon as I got all episodes.

While reading about it I came across Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, and several people said this was even closer to Todd than Ash. So when I finish this I'm gonna watch Todd for sure. Looks kinda neat.

I don't think that just counts for Bava, but the entire old school Italian scene as a whole. Their 60's, 70's and to some degree 80's gothic horror movies are on a whole other level. And don't get me wrong, I like British and American gothic horror as much as the next one, but there's something truly magic and unique about the Italian ones from this period of time. Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti, Sergio Corbucci, Riccardo Freda, Pupi Avati, Francesco Barilli and more. While a lot of these made different type of gothic horror movies, they all kinda carried a lot of the same elements, this unique, different Italian flavor of some sorts. It's exactly the same as with the spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Alberto Cardone, Gianfranco Parolini, Giuliano Carnimeo, or with the Italian crime/thrillers known as poliziotteschi by Enzo Castellari, Bruno Corbucci, Umberto Lenzi, Sergio Martino, Fernando Di Leo etc. They just got something very, very special about them that made them feel so very different from similar type movies from other countries.

All people should get more knowledge about Italian cinema from this era. Magic stuff!

Doom: Annihilation - Mindless video game fun. This isn't a good movie by any means, but it's fun and does manage to give you a strong Doom feeling every now and then by including some nice dialogue and well known weapons and equipment. It's a much better Doom adaption than the movie with The Rock, but it's not any better. I like both.

Jeepers Creepers - I remembered this as pretty bad, but I was horribly mistaken. This is an awesome, early 2000's slasher with a damn cool villain and atmosphere. Some comedic elements without ever going over the top with it, and they didn't go for comedy over atmosphere or horror. Yeah, this surprised me. Really good.

Jeepers Creepers 2 - With the second movie they move away from the slasher genre to more of a straight up creature feature, and it's OK, but the Jeepers Creepers kinda lost its appeal as it's just a standard monster in this, flying around and killing. It's OK, but nowhere near as good as the first. The low-budget comes through a lot better to because the use of CGI is so more prominent with the beast flying around all the time. Shame really.

Jeepers Creepers 3 - A sequel to the first and prequel to the second, this is better than its IMDB and RT score, but still not more than just OK. It's not as straight up creature flick as the second, but is more of a mystery horror I guess. It's actually well-acted, the story isn't bad or anything, but the CGI is just awful and with the movie taking place during the day, in broad daylight, they don't manage to hide these flaws either, which is a huge problem. The bad effects just takes me out of the mood tbh. Worst in the series, and i don't feel like there's any need for a fourth one.

Lake Placid - Creature feature with a huge crocodile. It's a horror comedy and I think liking this depends on enjoying the comedic elements or not. If you can handle them you'll like it, but if you don't like it you probably won't like the movie either. I could handle them and liked this quite a lot.

Horror Movie: A Low Budget Nightmare - Documentary about the making of Red Christmas, a low-budget horror comedy from Australia starring Dee Wallace. This really hits the right spots as it's fun, charming, awkward, sad etc. Really well made, and it shows the potential trouble in making low-budget movies these days. Some truly hilarious scenes too, especially those including Gerard O'Dwyer, a fun and charming man with down syndrome.

Underwater - Claustrophobic aquatic horror in the vein of underwater Alien rip offs like Leviathan, The Rift, Deepstar Six etc., as well as Alien and its rip offs set in space such as Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, Creature etc. So this isn't an original movie by any means, but it's real fun and awesome. It is, however, sadly let down by its lead Kristen Stewart who isn't nearly good enough to carry the movie on her shoulders, and what a shame that is because this could, and should, have been a modern classic. And just by swapping Kristen Stewart with Natalie Portman or something you'd probably be there. So this movie is really good DESPITE Kristen Stewart, which says a lot about the movie itself. Also, H.P Lovecraft fans NEED to see this. Håhåhåhåh!!!

War - Me and my good friend (who just happens to be half Indian, and an hater of Bollywood movies) came over the trailer to this Bollywood movie and it looked like an Indian Fast and the Furious. Super over the top action movie with good action and shit. And it is over the top and it has got surprisingly well-made action scenes, but that's about it. The story feels cheap and messy, and the movie is close to an hour too long which is impossible to forgive.  But I did like how cheesy and over the top the characters were. But even if they were cheesy and over the top, they never reached the greatness of movies like Dabangg, Singham, Endhiran. But they too are also too long, but because they're so over the fucking top they don't feel an hour too long, even though they're as long as War. I did however love the couple of songs and dances in it tho.

I'm a coffee drinker. I just regular, cheap pre-ground coffee for mornings before I go to work or something. Then I use way more expensive and better beans which I ground myself when I've got the time to properly enjoy a good brew.

I drink way too much coffee tho. On days such as these, when I am home all day, I drink up to 2,5l of strong coffee a day. On a regular day when I'm at work I usually drink a 2-4 cups of coffee between 8-10am, then 2-4 cups between 10-12am and then between 1-5 cups between 12-3pm. Depends on how much I got to do at work. Then I go home and between coming home and going to bed I drink around 7,5dl. Healthy? Nah, but that's life. There's days where I don't drink coffee too and it's not a problem at all, but I prefer coffee for the same reason I drink beer. It just tastes fantastic.

Coffee & Kareem - Silly, over the top and crude buddy cop action comedy that's doomed to annoy some, offend others and please the likes of me. Mindless fun. Loved it.

Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe  - This was meant as an introduction to the Valiant universe before the release of Bloodshot with Vin Diesel. It's an OK web-series, tho I watched the movie version of it. Actors are for most part less good, the CGI and special effects are cheap as hell, but the overall presentation and story is fine. It's alright, but that's about it.

Bloodshot - Vin Diesel is Bloodshot, a pretty fucking badass superhero that isn't done justice here. The movie is fun, it's very entertaining and cool, but it could and should have been better. It should've been slightly darker, a lot more violent and bloody, and the CGI should've been toned down. For most part the CGI is fine, but when it's bad it's really bad. But I liked this quite a lot.

Not for Resale - Documentary about video game stores and physical formats vs digital. It's pretty standard and been done many times already, but it's fun and cool and all.

Black and Blue - Very cool and intense action-thriller about a cop who witnesses some dirty cops. Thought it was pretty good, with Frank Grillo and Mike Colter stealing the show. Both giving phenomenal performances.

Contagion - Almost 10 years after its release Contagion is experiencing some success due to the covid-19 virus. This movie was heavily inspired by other pandemics such as the swine flu and sars, and is said by scientists, doctors etc to be ultra-realistic. And it really feels ultra-realistic. It's really good, well-made and all, but to be quite honest it didn't quite catch me, although I was impressed by it and found it interesting. It just wasn't fun enough IMO. But worth checking out for sure.

To my ear it depends on the music. Some music fits with so-called "bad"/lo-fi productions, some does not. Some bands fit the "good"/hi-fi productions, others does not. It's all about what fits the music and brings forth whatever elements needs to be brought forth (or hides, doesn't matter as long as it helps the music in a positive way), which to me means that both lo-fi and hi-fi productions can be great productions. Which means that I love plenty of VKs lo-fi productions, as well as disliking plenty of them.

Paysage d'Hiver - Das Gletschertor / Das schwarze Metall-Eisen

Kunsthall Productions is re-releasing the more than excellent Paysage d'Hiver and Lunar Aurora split, with some extra material of course. It'll include the two Lunar Aurora demos as well as two "new" Paysage d'Hiver tracks. The two Paysage d'Hiver tracks will also be released as an EP. These two tracks are from the Schattengang sessions, which is old Paysage d'Hiver. I can't wait for this!

They Shall Not Grow Old - They Shall Not Grow Old is Peter Jackson stepping into the world of documentary filmmaking where he takes a familiar subject which has been "done to death" (well, that a bit of a lie. You can never get too many documentaries about wars) and breathes a lot of fresh air into it. This is a WWI documentary like you've never seen it before. This isn't so much about the war itself, and if you show this to someone unfamiliar with WWI they won't come out knowing a lot more. They Shall Not Grow Old show old recording from WWI modernized with modern technology. They went through hundred hours or so of old, shabby 13fps footage are upgraded to 24fps with beautiful colourized, went through 600 hours or so of interviews with soldiers to get the views and experiences of  being a soldier during the war, hired  lip readers to read the lips of the soldiers and got professional voice actors from different parts of Great Britain to read. This is, on a technical level, one of the best and most impressive movies I've seen. It's so well put together and restored. But the way it plays out is also incredible. Dark, grim as hell, bleak and just a real downer of a documentary. But it really gives you an insight of how it must have been to experience this, and it also shows a lot of humanity in how they treated eachother and so on. Easily a MUST SEE for anyone above the age of 16. This is one of those movies which should be a part of school classes when the kids are old enough. Masterpiece!

Operation Odessa - Documentary about a Russian mobster, a playboy and Cuban guy who teamed up during the 90's. Really cool and entertaining documentary that tells the story about how they met and how they got dragged into that type of things. If you liked Cocaine Cowboys you'll surely like this.

Tickled and The Tickle King - After David Farrier (Dark Tourist) comes over a random video of competitive endurance tickling  online he decideds he has to make a documentary about it and gets joined by his friend Dylan Reeve. And as they set out to make a movie about it, something that seemed to innocent and silly, it doesn't take long until shit hits the fan. It goes from fun, silly and innocent to dark, twisted and weird as hell pretty darn fast. The Tickle King is a short documentary that shows what happened after the release of this, and it just made things even weirder. Superb stuff!

Bad Boys for Life - Gone is the two first installments director Michael Bay, and in comes to younger men called Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and that's exactly what the series needed. This was a very old school buddy cop action comedy. Offers nothing new, but it was really fun and way better than the second movie. Almost as good as the first one IMO. Looks like there'll be a fourth entry as this has done fairly well, and I can't wait.

This also changed my views on the upcoming Beverly Hills Cop movie. Was negative, but with these two directing and Eddie Murphy proving with Dolemite Is My Name that he's as good as he was back in the days, this can't come fast enough.

The Gentlemen - Guy Ritchie's new film is Guy Ritchie back to his best. The tone is quite similar to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, albeit a bit more polished. But it's crude, fun and will surely trigger a lot of people. Which is great of course. Cast performs great with Hugh Grant(!!!) and Colin Farrell stealing the show. Hilarious movie.

Riddick - Hadn't rated this, but noticed quite fast that I had seen it before. The start is a bit slow and Vin Diesel isn't given enough time, but it doesn't take too long before it hits the right notes and when it does it's really fun. Not as good as Pitch Black, but better than The Chronicles of Riddick.

Death by Metal - Documentary about legendary death metal band Death. Good interviews with family members and ex-members provides loads and loads of info and fun. And I liked how it didn't try to sugarcoat anything just because the man himself is dead. People had loads of positive things to say about Chuck Schuldiner, but they weren't afraid to paint him bad either. And truth be told, judging from this documentary, he seemed like quite the cunt. Like... he seemed like a massive fucking cunt. Great documentary about a fantastic and super important band.

Finished Tiger King and it was amazing. Best True Crime series so far. The people involved in all of this? Holy fuck! How can they all be real? Not only Joe Exotic, but Carole, Jeff,  Doc Antle, Tim, Allen and more. How the hell are these real life human beings? Fuckin' hell, this shit is crazy. Amazing docu-series.

Watching Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness and this is quite something. There's been a lot of fantastic true crime over the past years, but this shit takes the cake. It's hard to believe a story like this, but at the same time it's so wild and absurd that it's impossible to believe it's fiction. No man can write anything like this. That shit is impossible. Amazing stuff.

The Funeral Orchestra - Negative Evocation Rites

Finally a new album from TFO. Released their debut in 2003, and since then they've only released an EP and two splits/singles (the singles are just the tracks off the splits). Funeral doom featuring Nicklas "Terror" Rudolfsson of Runemagick, Rapid Terrör, Sacramentum, Necrocurse etc. Got high expectations for this.

The Last Days on Mars - Cool, claustrophobic sci-fi horror in the vein of Alien, Europa Report, Event Horizon etc. It's cool and all, but was lacking just something. Not atmospheric enough maybe? ANyway, not nearly as bad as most seem to think.

Life - Another, Alien-esque movie with claustrophobic elements. This too was cool, but it lacked just something extra. The alien did not get to me at all. It simply wasn't cool enough looking. But aside from that it was cool.

he Mummy - The 1959 Terence Fisher classic. It carries all the traits of a Terence Fisher, and as one of the greatest directors ever that's just awesome. Beautiful sets, beautifully shot, gorgeous colours, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee etc. It's pretty much perfect. Fantastic movie!

Funniest thing I've seen all week. Holy shit!

Safe House - I skipped this when it was released because it looked mediocre, but I decided to watch it last night and god damn it was cool. It's a typical, high octane action-thriller, but a good Ryan Reynolds and a phenomenal Denzel Washington makes it something else. Denzel Washington just carries the movie so well. He's tough, he's badass and cool as hell, but he's also really sympathetic. Few actors are capable of acting the way he did in this, The Equalizer I & II, Training Day and so on. The way he's unlikable, but still to likable. But anyway, really cool film.

Outland - This loose remake of High Noon stars a phenomenal Sean Connery plays out like High Noon meets Alien, but without the horror of the latter. A dark, bleak space western mystery. I really liked this. Highly recommended.

Long Live the King - Documentary about King Kong, and it also uses some time on its sequels/spin-offs and knock-off. Really nice, charming and fun stuff.

Chris Walas: Stop-motion looks fake but feels real; CGI looks real but feels fake.

Chris Walas (aka special effects magician) 4 prez!

ololol