You're my hero for playing this...

"[I'M] A REAL HERO, AND A HUMAN BEING...."

Last week, sanguine, full-blooded at least; this week, living on the fumes of hope that remain. Such is the psyche of a bent free-form DJ, but I get the sense that many of you Castleheads are extended too, beyond what's reasonable...fractured, and there is some comfort in numbers, in having a "tribe." Happy to be anyone's hero, even for 11 minutes!

Playlist-comment heralds went out this week to: vintage Bathory | new, intense, progressive black from Erraunt | the powerful split LP on Dead Section from Anicon & Belus | the outstanding new Prurient album ...

I quite enjoyed the aforementioned, as well as tracks by Stumm, Enbilulugugal, Ramlord, Caveman Cult, Mueco, Furze, Theologian, and John Wiese.

Thanks for listening, and engaging with lively film chatter on the comments board. ...

Next week: To finish off the current WFMU schedule with something different, I'll be doing a Scandinavian Prog special.

Our capture this week comes from the short-film series culled form the Berserk anime and manga [read online!] ...If you know the story, that there depicted is the "behelit," and it leads to a lot of horror and death for all involved.... The behelit generates demons, and agony, as you can well see...I guess THAT'S what I felt like, at least this week....

Hey I stayed up for this

Sanguine ... associated with the predominance of blood among the bodily humors • archaic bloody or bloodthirsty.

Started off with the letting of some "rock blood," and playlist nods went to the excellent, new s/t Wire album; Perfect Pussy; and that hot new Uniform full-length, still working its way to invading my consciousness. I quite liked the newly-issued, "lost" Rema-Rema 12" as well ...

We then careened into a full set of d-beat / punk / crust / thrash whatever-the-kids-are-calling-it-these-days, with a ferocious battering that included songs from Vivisektion, Vastator, Infernal Onslaught [all still available on tape through Wohrt Records], the new Halshug on Southern Lord ... and I must thank Nitsua Sean for pointing me toward two amazing, newer Ontario bands, Mueco and Mocoso.

The Devilspit tape, Grim, Hateful & Drunk, continues to be a personal favorite [Caligari Records], as does Ashencult's Black Flame Gnosis, not their latest, but ever-emerging as an excellent collection deserving of greater praise and attention, cassette available from Broken Limbs Recordings.

Older selections on vinyl from Sad, and Haat, dressed up the table at our black metal party...later, newer selections from NRIII [cassette now available!], Prurient, and Palace of Swords crowned our last hour.
 
Haat, same album, different song, on YT.

Our playlist-topping photo this week comes from talented French-Canadian designer Maude Nibelungen, sporting a handsome, black-latex glove by Vex, Inc.; it's images like these, and the notions they provoke, that keep me sanguine.

Thanks as always for listening, and joining in on the playlist reverie.

Goth it up

 

Before the fact of the 3.5 hours of sleep I got last night comes crashing down on me, wanted to share last night's My Castle of Quiet with you all.  Was a different kind of night; several longer pieces suggested a more horizontal mood than is perhaps usual—outstanding new material from NRIII; a tape side from the great, unmappable Krasseville; and an album side of "bleak, ceremonial doom"* from the divine and under-celebrated Sektarism. 

Even with its broader shape, I think you'll agree last night's horrorcast™ was quite "metal," what with the Heathen selection, the first Villains single, new Satanic Warmaster, the thrash records I nabbed @ the WFMU Record Fair, UFO [!!!], tracks from Pig Destroyer and Sunrot.

Playlist shouts to the aforementioned Krasseville; the fantastische new digital album by Spitzenqualität, whose marriage of raw bm with a Krautrock sensibility reaches new heights on this collection; and Norma Tanega, with her 1966 song, "You're Dead," used to great effect for the title sequence of the new-ish Kiwi comedy-horror feature What We Do in the Shadows.

Our movie still this weeks comes from a newer film, The Battery. ...That people are still able to reboot the zombie mythos and template with originality, telling fresh stories, is continually amazing to me—it's rare, but The Battery does it for sure. A moody travelogue in an unpopulated American wasteland, where two minor-league baseball players are trying desperately to survive, and gain traction, both in their situation and their friendship, and the scene excerpted above is one of most unexpected (yet somehow so natural I saw it coming) scenes in any new horror film I've seen in quite some time...don't want to spoil anything....

Thanks for listening as always. The WFMU schedule goes through its bi-annual change in a few weeks; hopefully, we follow one another into the Summer, and beyond, with some rare, exceptional live music in the works.

*per Amoeba Music

...kid stuffed pop rocks into his dick, and it exploded.

My my, how that Jonathan Herweg can get me talking! A divine compadre, we get each other laughing, and hopefully extracted yuks and maybe even a few deep thoughts from listeners as well. STDs, childhood terror, "sharing your feelings" with a significant other, early porn experiences & the birds and the bees [see "childhood terror" above], politics, elections, race, machismo, music fanaticism and more were all on the table. ...Always a treat, to have a guest to help me dust off Castle cobwebs, and Jonathan is just about as good as it gets. Click on his name, above, to hear his Blurred and Obscured WFMU show archives.

Not much talk on our comments board about the music we heard last night, though my score of the Nuclear Assault / Brain Death 12" got a shout; many other great thrash / speed metal left the WFMU Record Fair in my hands, including selections we heard by Toxic Holocaust, Indestructible Noise Command, and Agony.

Other personal highlights included Overmars | Dead Congregation | Vérzivatar [first demo!] | Spitzenqualität | Dumal | Sale Freux [great new full-length] | Holocaustus ...

Thanks to all who listened, participated, endured / enjoyed our banter, and commented on the playlist. Click on this week's capture, our second from You're Next, to reach the archived audio, etc. for last night's horrorcast™.