Mocata's Den of Horror

Sad news recently, as Killjoy (real name, Frank Pucci), main man of early death metal band Necrophagia, died.  I have been a fan of Necrophagia for years, leading me to also enjoy other bands Killjoy participated in: Wurdulak, The Ravenous, Cabal, Enoch, Haxxan, and others. I am very happy that I had the opportunity to see him with Necrophagia and also got to meet him.  He was quite friendly and Necrophagia put on a great show.  I remember being at the front of the crowd right in front of Killjoy and singing (or growling, I suppose would be more appropriate) parts of the song when Killjoy held the microphone out to me and the guy next to me on multiple occasions (especially during the song "Cannibal Holocaust").  The headliner on that tour was actually 1349, but I was there to see Necrophagia and Necrophagia did not disappoint. Killjoy performing with Necrophagia, 2015 I remember being at the Housecore Horror Festival a few years back and wearing a Necropha...

Back in January of this year, Dallas Mayr, also known as Jack Ketchum, died.  He was not the most well-known author,  but where his name was known (primarily among horror fans), his reputation was that of a writer who performed literary assaults on his readers' senses and emotions.  He gave the world two of the most legendary, brutal horror novels of the 20th century: Off Season and The Girl Next Door . Off Season was his first novel and despite the fact that the publisher, Ballantine, had required numerous cuts from Mayr to tone down the dark, gruesome, and relentlessly bleak feel of the book, it was a lean, mean, and utterly vicious read.  Not even reaching the 200-page mark, the novel left no room for the literary self-indulgence that seems to plague many novels today, stretching what should be a 250-page story into a bloated 500-page one.  Of course, many years later, Dallas was able to republish the novel in a form more to his liking, known as the Unexp...