By Tim Murr
I find it hard to believe that there once existed a band that featured guest appearances from James Williamson (The Stooges) and a young Randy Rhoads (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne) that I’ve never heard of and you probably haven’t, either. But it’s true! The band is called Smokey.
By Tim Murr
I’m always excited for a new Ridley Scott movie. I saw Alien the same year (1980) I saw Jaws and Jaws 2, which was two years before I saw The Empire Strikes Back (my first Star Wars film). So despite having Star Wars toys for most of my short life, my first sci-fi love came from Scott’s shocking, atmospheric, and dark film. When I was a kid, there weren’t many directors’ names I knew, but I knew George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, and Ridley Scott. Of those three, the only one I still get excited about is Scott.
By Tim Murr
For fans of the Netflix hit series Daredevil, the news is very good. A second season has already been announced. Since then, the rumor mills have been churning about who the antagonist might be. Fans’ wish lists of villains are long, but Bullseye and The Punisher have been high on almost everyone ‘s list.
By Tim Murr
The man who hunted Nazis in WWII and played some of the greatest villains in cinematic history has passed away. Christopher Lee was an intelligent, charming man. He was knighted. He was a descendant of Charlemagne. He recorded two metal albums when he was in his ‘80s and ‘90s. He was an amazing talent to say the absolute least.
By Tim Murr
Throughout its first season, The CW’s iZombie has managed to be more entertaining than the last three seasons of The Walking Dead, which devolved from a must-see gory character drama to boring misery porn that suffers from hideous pacing. (And yes, I haven’t missed an episode and yes, some episodes were very good.)
By Tim Murr
I’d guess I have about ten films that are deeply important to me on an emotional level. They’re not necessarily all deep movies, but they are all films that represent very specific times and very specific situations, both good and bad. They are films that I can watch over and over and be transported back to a time and place and vividly relive a certain state of mind and/or heart.
Jaws is one if those films. I was four when I saw Jaws and Jaws 2 on cable. I watched it multiple times before I turned five, which is when my parents divorced. So for me, watching Jaws always takes me back to a time when the world didn’t feel like it was ending everyday. (A feeling that never went away, but evolved from fear to anger to bitterness.)
By Tim Murr
There are so many sub genres in heavy metal that black metal progenitors Mayhem stand under the same umbrella as pop glamsters Poison. Which is kind of cool when you think about it. There’s so much that you can do with metal, so many styles you can mix in, so many identities that exist shoulder to shoulder.
By Tim Murr
Oslo, Norway’s Timeworn has barreled out of the gates with a blockbuster album called Luminescent Wake. It combines elements of thrash metal and ’90s hardcore, in a wholly exciting way. I keep hearing comparisons to Converge, and I guess I hear that, too, but I’d compare them more to a meatier sounding Bloodlet.
By Tim Murr
The House of the Devil, 2009
One thing that drove me away from contemporary horror films back in the mid ‘90s was the lack of artistry, the lack of guts, and the lack of a good story. Discount bin fodder like weak PG-13 big studio efforts and boring sequels to should-have-been-over-by-now ’80s slashers didn’t have me rushing to the theater or the video store. Instead, I stuck to renting older horror films and exploring art house and foreign cinema. This was a rewarding and educational time for me, but it burnt my ass to have nothing available but re-watches of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Suspiria if I wanted to really get my fix of terror.
By Tim Murr
The debut album by Mortals from Brooklyn, NY is a black/thrash/sludge metal-enthusiast’s dream. Cursed To See The Future hits hard and never relents across six tracks, clocking in at around 50 minutes. With brutal, pummeling rhythms, throat-shredding vocals, and unimpeachable guitar and bass work, Cursed sets a high bar for a debut.
I don’t think it should be necessary in 2014 to make a big deal about Mortals being an all female power trio that rightly earns comparisons to High On Fire and Darkthrone, but there you go. These three women—Caryn Havlik (drums), Lesley Wolf (bass/vocals), and Elizabeth Cline (guitar)—create rhythmically exciting metal that stands shoulder to shoulder with any of their contemporaries. Track 5, “Series Of Decay,” backs up that assessment nicely.
After buying this album, it’s been pretty much all I’ve listened to, and before that I’d been listening to their Death Ritual EP and Night Terror Demo. I like Mortals quite a bit and highly recommend Cursed To See The Future. It’ll be exciting to watch this band continue to evolve; they’ll certainly be one of Relapse Records MVPs. If you can catch them on tour make sure you buy them each a quadruple espresso!
Cursed To See The Future was released by Relapse Records on July 8 and can be purchased on the label’s website. You can listen to the album on Bandcamp and purchase it from there, too.