Monday, July 1, 2019

High-Rise, A Hawk in the Woods, Hellsing, Veleno, God's War, Come Holy Death

Things that brought me delight in June, 2019:

High-Rise
For reasons I do not yet grasp, J. G. Ballard has had much better luck than most authors when it comes to getting his work adapted into interesting movies that don't send you screaming back to the source material. The visual aesthetic of High-Rise captures the dual libidinal thrust of the untouchable nature of the commodity-driven Man of Modernity and his inevitable re-acquaintance with the Savage Child when modernity fails to deliver. 


Carrie Laben, A Hawk in the Woods
Tremendous debut novel. It's a modern take on Lovecraftiana but has more heart--and far more interest in modernity--than Ol' Lantern Jaw could ever have mustered. No love of gabled roofs here, but rather we get a cogent look at familial ties, social media as magical glamour, the weight of personal history, and facing the unavoidable. The structure see-saws back and forth between the past and present day and is uncommonly satisfying; the past frame catches up with the current story to perfectly underline the ways in which the past is always at our heels, ready to overtake us if we aren't wary of it. Also, this is probably the most accurate depiction of Western New York I've encountered in a long time.


Kohta Hirano, Hellsing 1-10
I watched an anime adaptation of Hellsing back in grad school, but I hadn't attempted the manga until now. There is a much heavier emphasis on all the old ideological frameworks clashing against each other than I was expecting: Protestants vs. Catholics acerbating the medieval tensions, Nazis popping up yet again (and man does the "Nazis secretly maneuvered themselves into positions of power" thing take on a new context now), Islamic extremism, something-something generational conflicts, etc.


Fleshgod Apocalypse, Veleno, Agony, Labyrinth, King
Although their first album mostly used classical orchestration as interludes between death metal bangers, Fleshgod Apocalypse quickly learned that their path was to integrate the orchestration as an indelible part of their sound. Few death metal bands eschew brutality for grandeur, but Fleshgod Apocalypse make it work. Veleno continues a string of great albums that pairs a playfully vulgar take on classical instrumentation with tight riffs and blast beats. I was enjoying Veleno so much I also delved into past glories like Agony, Labyrinth, and King.


Kameron Hurley, God's War
God's War has a really interesting sci-fi/fantasy set-up: an Islamic-influenced planet where the various nations make war against each other with magical bug-tech and specially trained women act as head-taking bounty hunters and assassins. I liked that Nyx, the main character, is both a bad-ass and someone who fucks up an extraordinary number of times. Will definitely read the rest of the series.


Profundum, Come, Holy Death
Wave after wave of neo-classical doom and black metal washes over you as you listen to Come, Holy Death. (Emphasis on the neo-classical part; it's the dominant texture of this project despite it being self-described as Emperor-worship, so don't expect much in the way of riffs.) The production is pretty murky, which may be intentional to create that "old-school kvlt" atmosphere, but I have to wonder if a little clarity (and additional care mixing the vocals) wouldn't have been the the album's overall benefit. (Bandcamp link)


Trevor Morris, Castlevania
The soundtrack to Netflix's Castlevania cartoon has made for excellent "wake up and start writing" music in the mornings.


Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaka Amano,
Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase
This is the volume that the Bloodlust anime is based on, except there's a big difference in tone (the light novel has a running thread of perverse, incestuous abuse that is absent from the anime) and a very different ending (Carmilla doesn't factor into this at all). The Demon Deathchase drinking game: take a shot every time D is described as sailing through the air "like a mystic bird." Best line of dialog: "Well spank my ass!" Weirdest "D is so hot moment": "He's so dreamy I wish he would just...kill me! Hnnnnn." The dhampir who can drink the sap of trees and the oil of automatons to gain power over them was pretty neat.


Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters
Although the supernatural elements of the stories in this collection are finely wrought, Ballingrud really excels when he's probing the aftermath of a supernatural encounter. And that probing inevitably ends up unearthing some uncomfortable facet of masculinity that looms large in the darkness. This one gets my highest recommendation.


Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yohitaka Amano, 
Vampire Hunter D: Tale of the Dead Town
Vampire Hunter D is hired to investigate a mysterious vampire attack aboard a floating town, but the real take away is that D so hott that: a) he makes a teenage girl forget that her parents were just eviscerated by dragons in front of her b) he causes a guy to say "Just thinking about that mug of yours gives me a powerful urge to jerk off, you know" (direct quote) and c) he even fucks up machines, "In the shadow of the building some fifteen feet away there suddenly stood a figure in black so beautiful and tragic it numbed even the electronic brain of this machine" (another direct quote).


Chaos Moon, Eschaton Memoire
Anguished and esoteric atmospheric black metal. (Bandcamp link)


Covenant, In Times Before the Light
Not the terrible industrial remix they put out after their change in musical direct, I'm talking about the original symphonic black metal record here. One of the first black metal records I had and it's still great.


Covenant, Nexus Polaris
Nexus Polaris still possesses many of the black metal trappings the band evidenced on In Times Before the Light, but the production became much clearer, they added more prominent keyboards and the choral vocals of Sarah Jezebel Deva, and they started looking toward the stars (their destination). I can get scared off by radical departures, but I love this record.


Witchery, Restless & Dead, Dead, Hot, and Ready, Witchburner, Symphony for the Devil, Don't Fear the Reaper
Blackened thrash metal; Restless & Dead and Dead, Hot, and Ready, their first two albums, are essential. Symphony for the Devil and Don't Fear the Reaper are generally thought to be inferior departures, but I still think they offer solid thrash. Turns out that even "bad" Witchery is still pretty tasty.


Castlevania FunkoPops
I appreciate that everyone tried to protect my wallet by not telling me about the Castlevania FunkoPops, but some dooms cannot be avoided.


Agalloch, The Serpent & the Sphere
There are many black metal bands that add folk music to their sound; Agalloch re-crafts black metal into a folk tradition. (Bandcamp link)


Tenebrous Kate, Liches
None of you fools bought these before her shop shut down and now they're MINE all MINE.


Witch Ritual, Death:Beyond
Thick slabs of doom. Instrumentally, nothing here will surprise you (and I think the production is just a touch muddy in places) but the real selling point at the exceptionally strong vocals provided by frontwoman Lacri. (Bandcamp link)


Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaki Amano,
Vampire Hunter D: The Stuff of Dreams
So far, this was the best of the Vampire Hunter D light novels. It works some interesting dream-within-a-dream territory and ponders the pull that home always exerts. Still, it's a Vampire Hunter D book so take a drink every time his coat is described as being like a pair of black wings. Also, D fights some vicious giant chickens, no lie.


Manly Wade Wellman, The Solar Invasion
Sci-fi in the classic pulp vein. Curt Newton, aka Captain Future, and his pals (which include an android master of disguise, his mentor who is a brain in a box, a big clanking robot, and his hot space-cop girlfriend) face off against Ul Quorn, the Magician of Mars!


Acquisitions Incorporated
It's a common complaint that modern D&D doesn't stray much beyond the "D&D Fantasy" genre, but I'm not sure I buy that. Acquisitions Incorporated is a supplement that turns D&D into a dark satire of the corporate world and that feels pretty unusual to me. A few minor criticisms: this has more under-used white space than most WotC books and every copy I've seen has had some damp-wrinkled pages--did this get a water treatment intended for Saltmarsh?


Through the Breach
With 3e Malifaux on the horizon, I went down a rabbit hole of all the Through the Breach stuff I've got. The Penny Dreadful modules, in particular, are ripe for cannibalizing for adventure ideas no matter what system you go with.


Vampire Counts, 5th edition
If I see a Vampire Counts codex for cheap that I don't already have, I usually get it for the art alone.


Philip Reeve, Predator's Gold
You can really see the influence of Dickens on Philip Reeve in Predator's Gold. What's the chances that a character named Nimrod Beauregard Pennyroyal turns out to be a puffed-up, malacious idiot? Pretty good chance.


Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Mateus Santolouco,
American Vampire, Volume Two
Strange births. I continue to appreciate how American Vampire uses the vampire as a metaphor for the misdeeds of capitalism--particularly the rabid American version. In the second volume we get a look at the genesis of Sin City and a look back at the legacy of bootlegging--with a bloody twist to each, of course.


Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaki Amano,
Vampire Hunter D: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane
D escorts a strange group through a sentient desert--sort of like the Vampire Hunter D take on Two Mules for Sister Sara maybe. An elderly woman calls D a "stud," D fights a shark (yes, in the desert), and we get to see what a bard looks like in this world.