Mocata's Den of Horror

 I have neglected this blog this year, mostly due to focusing on music and just daily stuff like work. Still, I wanted to get some Halloween music recommendations out there for this year.  I think I will do this a little differently this time, with most of these being releases I discovered through Bandcamp.      Fleshrot - Unburied Corpse First up, we have a new band that is putting together some pretty old-style death metal.  Nothing groundbreaking, in general, but it is just plain good.  This isn't a band preoccupied with being technical and playing faster than anybody else.  This is a band trying to make some good, old-fashioned, memorable death metal, which I think the band succeeds at. Hailing from Lubbock, Texas, Fleshrot released a demo on Bandcamp, which also was released as a cassette and a 7".  This was the release that introduced the band to me.  When the album came out, I snagged a copy and have been enjoying it quite a bit....

 For decades, one of the top selling authors in the U.K. was a man called Dennis Wheatley.  His books were published in many countries around the world and translated into numerous different languages.  A handful of his novels were even adapted into films.  Wheatley's novels, by and large, were thrillers in the purest sense-- they thrilled his audience.  His books contained things such as adventure, romance, espionage, war, and, probably most famously, the occult.  Out of the fifty-plus novels he wrote, there are a total of nine which are typically categorized as "black magic stories".  These books are not a series really (although some of the included novels are part of various series he wrote), just a general topic that these books were lumped under by the publisher.  The truth is that some of the novels in that group contain little or no black magic.  Others, however, certainly are stories of black magic. The first of these books was 1934'...

With Halloween rapidly approaching, I wanted to discuss a movie that is good for watching around that time of year.  This year, I want to talk about a cult classic of the '80s, Trick or Treat .  Starring Marc Price (aka Skippy from Family Ties ), this film tells the story of a metal fan who is an outcast at his high school, which is also the school his hero, Sammi Curr, attended 20 years earlier.  After hearing about Curr's sudden death in a hotel fire, Eddie (Marc Price) swings by the local radio station where he talks to the DJ, Nuke (played by Gene Simmons).  Nuke gives Eddie an acetate of the final, unreleased Sammi Curr album, which cheers the distraught kid up.  Eddie listens to the record at home and soon discovers this is much more than a regular musical recording.  Through this recording, he is able to raise the spirit of his hero, Sammi, who begins wreaking havoc on the town, starting with helping Eddie best the assholes who enjoy harassing him at...

Finally, the 1968 Hammer Films classic, The Devil Rides Out , has gotten a Blu-ray release in the U.S.  This release is courtesy of the folks at Shout Factory/Scream Factory. U.S. Blu-Ray release from Scream Factory There are two versions of the film included on the disc: the original version as released in the U.S. (including the alternate title of The Devil's Bride ) and there is also the revamped version Hammer released in the U.K. with the modified special effects.  Obviously, making changes to an old movie is a contentious issue, so it is a good move to have both versions, rather than just choosing one or the other.  For those who are curious to see the enhanced effects, it is there, but at the same time, you aren't stuck with it if you don't like it.  There is still the regular version to watch. Much of the bonus stuff is carried over from some previous releases, such as the audio commentary featuring Christopher Lee, plus some featurettes from the Ha...