Saturday, October 29, 2022

Gianni Ferrio - Perversion Story (1969)


The soundtrack to Lucio Fulci's very first piece of giallo, Una sull'altra (aka Perversion Story). Encompasses big band jazz, cool jazz, psych pop, deranged carnival tunes, and general abstract horror creepiness.

Track listing:
1. The Mess
2. Tell Me
3. Strip for a Teenager
4. Hammond Psychedelic Concert
5. I Love You More Than What You Do
6. Psychedelic Concert
7. L.S.D. Atmosphere
8. Old Little Theme
9. To End
10. All I Need
11. Psychedelic Concert
12. Harry's True
13. Violence for Sax
14. L.S.D. Atomsphere
15. London Ride
16. Helen, My Love
17. In a Strange Mood
18. A Man in the Shadow


More Italo-horror soundtracks:

Friday, October 28, 2022

Matthew Johnson - Ghosts in the AI (2009)


Tech-house with eerie, horror-steeped synths. I'm currently buried alive in school work -- y'all don't even know I'm in fucking 5 classes this term, and they're all hard -- but if I die down here, trust that I will come back and haunt the shit out of the two classmates who skipped our last meeting knowing that we'd still put their names on our document.

Track listing:
1. Ghosts in the AI
2. Technology
3. The Alchemist
4. Technology (Edit)


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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Daniel Lentz - wolfMASS (2000)


Previously on OPIUM HUM:

A disorienting, whimsical, sacrilegious take on a Latin mass mixing MIDI keyboards and choral vocals. I've only heard two other solo Lentz works, but contemporary classical pieces powered by highly synthesized sounds seem to be his specialty. I'm not sure I really understand wolfMASS -- as far as I can tell, it's more of an "Animal Mass", or perhaps a meditation on violent conflict -- but it's a wonderfully warped pleasure to listen to.

Track listing:
1. Preludium
2. wolfKYRIE
3. bearGLORIA
4. eagleCREDO
5. cougarSANCTUS
6. manAGNUS DEI


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Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Kutabare - Finger Food Fetish for the Morbidly Abnormal (2003)


A big, muddy pile of Australian death metal gore with very little concern for song structure, dynamics, variation, or any other basic musical principle. Pretty sure this is what all death metal sounds like to people who don't like death metal. Absolutely disgusting. 

On a different topic: some crusties I went to high school with (two of whom formed Inure during senior year) had a succession of jokey grindcore bands, the best of which was called Morbidly Obese, whose gimmick was that they were all trying to get extremely fat and die -- a fool's errand, based on the fact that they were all vegan. Seemed pretty hilarious at the time.

On another different topic: have any of you ever seen Naked Blood? What a fucked up movie. It's a Japanese gore movie about this creep who modifies an experimental drug to turn pain into pleasure, then secretly gives it to three women; one cuts off, cooks, and eats her own body parts, including her nipple and labia, and another engages in some serious self-mutilation due to body image issues. What happens with the other one? Well, you'll just have to watch the movie to find out, which I seriously doubt you will because there's no way it's streaming anywhere. But I bought the DVD on Ebay like 20 years ago, so if you live in Portland, hit me up. (This is a joke.)

EDIT: A helpful commenter hipped me to the existence of a full rip of Naked Blood on YouTube, so have at it!

Track listing:
1. Religiously Frustrated
2. Moistened Cunt
3. Frotage the Fromage
4. Siamese Twins
5. Rime of the Ancient Marinated Corpse
6. Dildo of Death
7. Alien Intelligence
8. Maggot Laced Meal
9. Assassin
10. Guinea Worm


If you like this, listen to:

Monday, October 24, 2022

Kallabris - Njonto (1988)


10 untitled tracks of weird-ass experimental sounds from the German industrial underground. Droning accordion, rumbling noise, warped keys, and disjointed whispers. At times, almost sounds like a lost LLN project.


More club bangers to get this fucking party fucking started:

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Wilt - Wither (2001)


Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Rita & Wilt - Werewolf in the Black Space (2008)

Utterly unmusical dark ambient/noise from Wisconsin (now Illinois) musician James P. Keeler. Crackling flames of harsh noise, droning black winds, and shimmering echoes of the void.

Track listing:
1. Passage of Seasons
2. A Bridge Between Two Drums
3. Soiled
4. Shivering Spine
5. Mud
6. Bloodletting
7. Still... Violent Waters
8. Black Amphora
9. The Burden of Flies
10. Taunting the Raven
11. Fallen Harvest
12. From Dying Branches
13. Untitled
14. Autumn Calls
15. Winterkill


Also listen to:

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Emit - Spectre Music of an Antiquary (2012)


Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Real haunty-boi hours. Dissonant, reverb-drenched, blackened ethereal darkwave -- spectral synths, skeletal drum machines, and moaning, rasping, wailing vocals.

Track listing:
1. Haunter of Benighted English Summers
2. Mors Wher Devels Are Abrod
3. The Dusk Gardens of Translucent Mansions
4. Shades Over the Mere
5. Trees Once Adorn'd with Severed Heads
6. Sylvan Old Enchanter
7. The Meadow Reapers (A Field Recording)
8. Emanations from Beneath Far Hills, Beyond Far Moons


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Friday, October 21, 2022

Devil Doll - The Girl Who Was... Death (1989)


A symphonic horror-prog epic for the ages. A single, 39-minute-long journey through the nightmare dreamscapes of the mysterious Mr. Doctor. I had zero context for this the first time I heard it, and honestly, that might be the best way to go into it, so I'll leave it there. Just know that this is required listening and will be on the exam.

One track: "The Girl Who Was... Death", followed by about 25 minutes of silence, then a cover of the theme from The Prisoner.

If you like this, listen to:

Thursday, October 20, 2022

GGUW - Gegen Gravitation und Willensfreiheit (2011)


Three untitled pieces of utterly mesmerizing black metal that demand close, repeated listening. This record is just so fucking cool. The black ocean of restless guitars, the vocals struggling for air just below the surface, the foreboding figures rising from the murk, all delivered as minimalistic raw black metal -- it's just perfection. Sadly, it's also the only record this band made before one of their guitarists committed suicide; they've put out one more EP since but, for me, it doesn't have the same alchemic dark magic.


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Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Every New Dead Ghost - An Endless Nightmare of Stations (1992)


Driving, hard-edged goth rock. An Endless Nightmare of Stations was this UK band's swansong, but it definitely doesn't sound like they were running out of steam -- it's energetic, muscular, punk, and even kinda fun, all while maintaining a 100% morbid goth aesthetic.

Anyone who has a better rip than 192, get at me.

Track listing:
1. Decadence
2. Obvious
3. Not in a Lifetime
4. Headless
5. Relics
6. Insanity
7. Sweat
8. Understanding
9. Small Talk
10. Signs for the Sacred


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Sunday, October 16, 2022

Come - Eleven:Eleven (1992)

Related:

Alright, so this one doesn't really fit my Halloween theme. It's dark for sure, but it's the oppressive, existential dread kinda darkness, not the "look out there's a wolfman behind you" or the "let's conjure Satan" kinda darkness. But fuck it, I'm sick of this record not getting the respect it deserves. It's absolutely one of my favorite records of the alt rock era -- explosive, simultaneously sludgy and sharp guitar work that's heavy on slide guitar and whammy bar; a dynamic, dialed-in rhythm section; and the raw, strung-out-sounding vocals of Thalia Zedek at the peak of her powers. An actual masterpiece. Yet you can (as I did) still find sealed copies of the 2013 Matador reissue for under $20. What's up with that?

Track listing:
1. Submerge
2. Dead Molly
3. Brand New Vein
4. Off to One Side
5. Bell
6. William
7. Sad Eyes
8. Power Failure
9. Orbit
10. Fast Piss Blues
11. I Got the Blues


Also listen to:

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Screaming for Emily - Scriptures (1987)


Synth-y goth-rock for heartbroken ghouls that's almost punk in its theatrical angst and lyrical bluntness. Makes me want to grab my Discman and pack of Camel Lights and go cry in a graveyard.

Track listing:
1. The Love
2. Too Late for Prayer
3. Last Goodbye
4. Another Girl
5. From Your Heart

More like this:

Friday, October 14, 2022

Ophthalamia - A Journey in Darkness (1994)


Related:
Abruptum - Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (1997)

Swedish melodic blackened doom featuring the guitar stylings of the late, great It. Riffs right out of the Sabbath/Candlemass playbook, raspy black metal vocals, and some goth-y keyboards here and there for atmosphere. Get it, you fools!

Track listing:
1. A Cry from the Halls of Blood / Empire of Lost Dreams
2. Enter the Darkest Thoughts of the Chosen / Agony's Silent Paradise
3. Journey in Darkness / Entering the Forest
4. Shores of Kaa-Tu-Nu / The Eternal Walk, Part II
5. A Lonely Soul / Hymn to a Dream
6. Little Child of Light / Degradation of Holyness
7. Castle of No Repair / Lies from a Blackened Heart
8. This Is the Pain Called Sorrow / To the Memory of Me
9. I Summon Thee, Oh Father / Death Embrace Me


If you like this, check out:

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Sepsism - Purulent Decomposition (1999)


Sick USDM with a queasy, dissonant style of riffing that just fucking churns my stomach in all the best ways.

Track listing:
1. Surgical Atrocity
2. Pathological Disfigurement
3. Necrotic Flesh Rot
4. Shredded in Cannibalistic Violence
5. Dissection
6. Internal Fermentation
7. Uterocasket
8. Brutally Butchered
9. Murdering at Random
10. Veneno et la Sangre
11. Punctured Internal Organs
12. Born into Oblivion


Also: