In Memoriam: Betsy Palmer

So, my 300th post is a sad one. Recently, Betsy Palmer has passed. For those asking who, Horror hounds may remember her as one Pamela Vorhees, Jason's mother. She was the one who seeked revenge for what the camp counselors did to her little boy and was the true killer in the original movie, something that gets lost in the sequals as the focus soley on Jason getting his revenge on the campers of Camp Crystal Lake.....not that there was anything wrong with that. It is probably my favorite franchise and her preformance was masterful, grabbing and magical. I mean, they built the whole franchise from that performance. She has done other movies and her performances was great in those but, to me and so many others, she will always be Pamela Vorhees from Friday the 13th a classic forever remembered for her performance. She will be missed greatly.

Erase Negate Delete - Disconnect - EP

So, back in the day before Facebook, there was Myspace and my friend who got me into Horror Rock would look for new bands. One band he came across was The Order of the Fly and I was hooked since he sent me the link. Why am I telling you this story? Well, if you don't know, Erase Negate Delete or E/N/D is Ralph Love's other band that is more industrial in the Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy tradition. When I found this out, I needed to grab their debut Just like This and I've been hooked since! There is plenty to love on this 3 song EP for people who LOVE Industrial or even for a casual fan of the sub-genre. This is an awesome release where the 3 songs hit you hard, fast and leave you wanting more! Not a weak track of the 3! Do I wish it was longer? Yea! Can I wait for new material? No! Whether it is new Order of the Fly or new E/N/D I am never disappointed with what Ralph Love releases and I will wait for whichever comes next. So, unless you are a mindless pop listening robot, you have no excuse and need to grab this release now...don't wait, get it now! You won't be sorry you did.

Dr. Murder - REDRUM

Remember what I said about split albums? How sometimes you may check out the other band that you are unfamiliar with because their side was just so good? Well, I was so impressed with Dr. Murder's side that I had to check out their other stuff....luckily for me they have only one release thus far so it was easy to catch up. Oh, and what a release this is! The debut from Brazilian Horror Punks Dr. Murder, REDRUM is stunning! Even though 2 of the songs are not in English, I could care less! I mean, "Nadando Em Sangue" is pretty bad ass and the whaos will have you singing along in no time! Don't be closed minded as they sing you songs in the language of their people as they rock! Standouts include "Cannibal Necropedophile", "Infected", "Nadando Em Sangue", "Necrophiliac Mind" and "We are the Living Dead". This is a band to watch out for and I can't wait personally to see how they follow up their output for 2015 thus far. So, get on this before the good doctor comes to check on you and does some ghastly surgery on you making you wish you were dead. That, or Jack takes that axe he's holding and breaks though the door. Either way, it's better to get the album.

Dr. Murder and Lupen Tooth - Amo Os Mortos

Splits can be a tricky thing for fans. Usually, one grabs it because they are a fan of one of the bands on the recording while checking out the other. Usually, they feature a new recording or recordings from both bands while traditionally containing a cover that both bands do of each others songs. At best, the whole recording rocks while, at worst, the band you like has a great half on the split. Well, let me tell you how I feel about the new split by Dr. Murder and Lupen Tooth. It rocks! Lupen Tooth opens the recording with the fury that you expect them to bring to new recordings while Dr. Murder continues the assault on their on their half. The new songs by Lupen Tooth and cover are spot on as there are no fillers on their half while for Dr. Murder does the same as it is all killer, no filler. Fans of both bands will be happy with the halves released by both bands while wanting to check out other material from the other. A perfect split in a sub genre that doesn't really see them a lot but, when they are released, are just perfect. Call the doctor and sink your fangs into this, you will not be disappointed. 

Rob Harms Belmont - Nighttime Revisited

So, here we have the debut solo release of Theatre Zombies front man Rob Harms Belmont revisiting the original Theatre Zombie demos. Listening to these songs it makes you wonder why the Theatre Zombies never released these songs before as they are good and catchy! I mean, I was singing along to the first track ON THE FIRST LISTEN! The fact that we now have these songs in some capacity is great for Theatre Zombie fans. Will this inspire a new solo album from Belmont or, should we look at this as a stop gap for the next release by the Theatre Zombies? How about we just enjoy the music and not ask such questions! This recording kicks ass! Standouts include the catchy opener "Slaughter in the South Bronx", "Carfax Abby", "Undead Girl", "Not Human" and "Never Grow Old, Never Die". If you are not a fan of the Theatre Zombies yet, check out this release and you may be persuaded to check out the other awesome releases by the band fronted by Belmont. As well, I kind of want to hear the original songs to compare them to this release and see why they weren't worthy originally.

A Conversation with Matt Pathetic

Hello and thank you again for doing this interview. For those people who are clueless, can you please introduce yourself?
I'm Matt Pathetic CEO and HNIC of Ghouls Night Out Festival, North America's largest horror punk festival. 

Alright so, lets begin with why you began Ghouls Night Out?
In 2001, I was in New York City at the Misfits 25th anniversary show. I was wide eyed and naive and had been booking shows on and off since the later part of the 1990s, basically throughout my high school years. What drew me to the Misfits was 3 things: punk rock, horror, and they were from the town I grew up in. But as I watched that show, I was a little disappointed.  It was shortly after the Newfits era had disbanded and it seemed more like a 3 ring circus than it did a show or a band really. I thought to myself, I know a handful of bands that do this same style but do it better than this incarnation. What if I put a punk festival together with an emphasis on horror punk. And so I got back home and started working from there.

The 2012 edition was supposed to be a one off as a farewell to Blitzkid. What was the driving force to continue the festival? 
2012 was supposed to serve as the send off to GNO I never got to give as well as a send off to Blitzkid. The show itself was so successful that year that I was reignited to do the show again, I saw the success to the show that I hadn't seen before. With the advent of social media we reached a whole new audience that we hadn't before. So it was off to the races for us again.

Speaking of 2012, you introduced the Space Ghoul. Were you expecting people to accept him as the mascot of the festival and has all this attention gone to the space bastard’s head?
Space Ghoul, now there's an interesting character. He started as just a drawing in 2012, and then he turned into a phenomenon all his own. He has been associated with GNO like the Crimson Ghost is with the Misfits or Eddie with Iron Maiden. He's a pushy, drug abusing, hooker fucking, Taylor ham addicted dick bag that often times gets you in more trouble than you want. For a time he lived with me, then JV Bastard, last year we tricked him into staying with Liz Gruesome when GNO returned to North Carolina the point of origin of GNO. We left him with Liz, I haven't heard much from him since then. I think she keeps him in her garage. Rumor has it she sent him to Daniel Madden of Maddens Monsters,  who has done some awesome sculpt work for the Misfits and Doyle recently, and he held him hostage and made Madden sculpt him in some strange playgirlesque poses.

How do you choose bands to be on the bill?
The fans do really. I mean there's obvious geographical considerations I have to take into consideration,  I hear people say all the time like "book the Other", we're a small d.i.y. festival and it's not Coca Cola presents GNO. If we had that money and sponsorship I'd love to bring the Other over and have them play. But the problem is: it takes money to get them here, they have to use time off work, then you have to pay them to play. So I try to keep it as realistic as possible, but give the fans what they want to see too.

How about the “Songs to Murder…” cds? How do you choose the best tracks to be on there?
I just try to feature bands that are up and coming in the genre, bands that are on the show, or in some cases a song that I'm like wow this song is great.

I read that this was the final GNO. Now, I know it can’t be easy to run as it can be both financially and time consuming but, is the casket closed or, like most horror villains, is there a chance it will come back again one day?

To be honest GNO is part of who I am, it's what I do. It's hard to shake. But with the current state of my life, I have to focus on my other top priority: family. I have an amazingly supportive girlfriend (PoiSin Herself) who dedicates her time to the show as well. I have to be honest, it strains our relationship at times. But we work through it. There's things the two of us want to achieve personally, and this show takes up our free time. We also have to find time to be parents as well, so it becomes an insane juggling act. I suspect it won't be the final GNO ever, as we have seen huge success in the mini 6 band GNOs we've been running this year so that may be something we look into.  

Is there anyone that you wished you could of booked but could never or kept alluding you?
There's a bunch of bands I want to work with. I could rattle them off, but I think we'd be here for days.

Any backstage stories that you would or can share from past GNOs? Anything funny?
In 2013, right before Argyle Goolsby's solo set there was some tension in the air backstage over things not going as they were planned. Gools himself was having a moment, and was upset because he's a showman and wants to give the fans the best show he can and things were unfolding differently than planned. That being said he was agitated, and walked by me saying something but I couldn't help but laugh at him. It was a hot sticky August evening, he's dressed in full on corpse paint, contacts etc. And his one contact had managed to move so he looked extremely mad and cross eyed at the same time and I just had a white girl moment and basically stood there and was like "I can't even." It was just one of those scenarios where you kinda stand back and just let that take you back to reality and say hey fuck it we're a buncha dudes who like Halloween too fucking much...let's go have some fun.

As the mad scientist who created this monster, what inspires you (Music, movies, books etc)? What got you into this music? 
As far back as I can remember I was drawn to Halloween. Even as a kid.  I remember being around 5 or 6 years old and throwing a hiss fit because I wanted to walk the dog dressed as the devil in the middle of July. So even at a young age I was drawn to monsters. I don't know why, just one of those things. As I got into my teenage years, I was drawn to punk rock. It's eclectic,  outspoken,  but there's a unity there. Then I found the Misfits, who merged my two favorite things and I just had this boner of epic proportions. Then I started doing research on my new found favorite band and found out they were from the same town I grew up in, in New Jersey and needless to say I was instantly growing a devilock out.

What is your current assessment of the scene from when you first got into it?
It definitely reaches a wider audience than it did in the early part of the 2000s. That much has vastly changed. As the internet has evolved you're put in touch with these people who are into the same things you're into and it makes everything that much cooler cause you can connect with these people. That being said, this scene in comparison to other scenes within the subgenres of punk, takes itself to serious at times. Keep the politics to Crass and Discharge, don't call someone a poser cause they like music other than horror punk. There's way too few of us for that. Embrace someone cause they take the time to be part of it. No one person is greater than the next in the scene. Every single person involved from being a fan, a band member, a promoter, a blogger, a photographer, are all intricate nuances that help make this what it is. At the end of the day it's about passion and devotion, you get out of it what you put into it. So if you want to play judge and jury and take sides and say who is or who ain't horror punk, you're missing the fucking point entirely. Appreciate the fact that there's someone out there who relates to the same things you do. Don't condemn them for it cause they don't like everything you like. I remember back in the day before social media, I was stoked to talk to people on message boards about the Misfits and Samhain, cause there were these people who were into the same shit as me from all over. Be stoked over things you have in common! 

As a fan of this genre, what new bands have you excited? What do you think people should check out?
I gotta be honest, spending so much time immersed in horror culture,  burns me out from it. For example when driving to GNO, I often end up listening to anything but horror punk just because I'm going to be surrounded by it for 16-17 hours. Now that being said there are still horror punk bands that get me excited, The Stellar Corpses do what they do extremely well and are very high energy. Same thing for Black Cat Attack, they moved away from focusing on the stereotypes and just tried being a punk band with horror tones.  Which is good, don't box yourself into a certain style! Being punk gives you a wide variety, you don't have to try to sound like Blitzkid or the Misfits. Try to sound like Nofx, lagwagon, pears, gallows and write horrorish lyrics around that. That's what would get me super excited again.

Is there any new releases (music, movies, etc.) that you are looking forward to?
The Ghouls Night Out dvd! Hahaha. That thing has been on consistent pain in my ass since day 1. There are so many things that have gone wrong along the way with it and we are still working out kinks. Our latest stumbling block hit us a month ago and we're trying to figure that out now. I just wanna get it out there so people don't think I took their money and ran. It's real. It exists. I assure you. It's just been very problematic and I assure you we're doing our best to have it ready at least in downloadable form, in time for GNO. Fingers crossed.

Thank you once again for this honor. Are there any parting words for the readers?
Long live the horror and eat all your vegetables.

GHOULS NIGHT OUT 2015

Have you got your tickets for the horror rock hootnany extravaganza of the summer? Available at www.ticketfly.com You'll be sorry of you miss it and Mister Monster doing Over Your Dead Body in its entirety. Plus the rest of the bill is like a dream come true!

Thirteen Shots - Black Smiles

Asking such fundamental, life challenging questions such as why can't werewolves and humans be friends, we have the Thirteen Shots hailing from Birmingham and their offering of Black Smiles. An assault that, with only some light moments,  from the opening chords to the last doesn't let up. At times, the album has a bit of a Sex Pistols aggression as they never listen to the bollocks and just kick ass instead. Each song flows nicely into the next as the album takes shape with each listen to give the listener more each time. Though this is not your basic, straightforward Horror Punk album as the dynamics in songs like "Lost Soul" is very appreciated. Standout tracks include "Cobradeer", "Run and Hide", "Cupid's Dead", "Werewolf Party", "Garage Crew", "Night of Sin", "Skitzo",  "Black Eyed Girl", "Black Smiles", "Lost Soul" and "Friday 13". With an album like this I can't wait to hear what they follow it up with next as this was a joyful 40 minutes to listen to.

Escape from New York (#6)

So Snake is in Serbia and is kicking Russian butt! The 81st has figured out who he is and something big seems to be on the horizon for Snake as the president is about to go on trial and the world is at war. Great continuation of the classic original film that makes this fan super happy.

Reanimator (#2)

Okay, so, West's new assistant is asking questions and she gets the answer she doesn't want at the end of the issue. Fast paced with lots of action, though the issue is mostly focused on her, it picks up where it left off and keeps on keeping on. Fans of the movies will find lots to like here with the great story and artwork along with the questions of what Herbert is actually up to and why create the drug he does. A great miniseries to get on if you haven't yet.

Frankenstein Underground (#2)

So, the monster finds himself first trapped by a monster then in some prehistoric society with dinosaurs and cave men. There is a battle that in sues that makes you wonder how this collector who seeks him plays into all of this. The story is good but, like Mignola stories it has you wondering where he's taking it all next....guess we'll have to see and find out in due time.