The cover of A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die. The hand glows in the dark.

Probably my biggest fear in opening up The Horror Blog to outside contributors was the possiblity that they would show me up and reveal me for the fraud I am. I’m happy to report that our first guest blogger, Teresa, of the always edifying In Sequence, has done just that. Teresa is my comrade-in-arms from my days of haunting the comics blogosphere (as well as a superb belly-dancer as seen in the picture to the left) and it warms my heart to see one of the old guard still providing quality observations on the world of sequential art. Thanks again, Teresa, and if you like what you read below I urge you to visit In Sequence for more of the same.

The Flesheaters: A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die

When I first heard the Flesheaters second album, “A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die,” I didn’t think of it as being connected to the horror genre, a relationship that seems obvious to me now.

I was a teenager then, and the angst expressed by the punk bands I liked was what attracted me to them. Intellectually, I knew these bands were considered shocking and aberrant, but emotionally, they seemed like natural extensions of the feelings I had every day.

Listening to “A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die,” I felt drawn into an infernal yet sympathetic nocturnal world. The first cut, “Digging My Grave,” begins with a spooky slo-mo chant:

Joyride leading to jail
And as it breaks through the wall
A ten-year-old learns how to die
Headache under florescent light

The creaking noise beneath the chant quickly changes to a driving rock beat, punctuated by lead singer Chris D.’s screaming vocals and a piercing, demented saxophone. Marimbas chime in the background, creating a velvet mood.

The stories told in the album lyrics, all but one written by Chris D., are macabre. They begin with a grim tale of family murder and end with an ode to lycanthropic transition. The hand-scrawled lyrics contained on the album liner added to the sensation that the album was an urgent communication from a captive in a demon-filled insane asylum.

My favorite song on the album is “River of Fever.” The lyrics contain what I have always considered a profound meditation on fear:

Fear subdued by thought was no fear at all
And strength is left undone
Deep down you’re bold and clever
Til those fingers close round your heart

What it means to me is that fear is a primary, or frontline, emotion. True fear is not something that can be easily reigned in or overcome. Our more civilized or developed feelings, such as bravery or rationality or thoughtful planning may, in time, grow from having had a fearful experience. But in the moment, one does not quell fear. In the moment, fear is always bigger than one’s self.

A few days ago My New Plaid Pants posted a link to an MP3 of Fiona Apple covering Sally’s Song from A Nightmare Before Christmas. Supposedly this is a 2-disc set was produced to coincide with the 3-D rerelease of the film, with the first disc being comprised of the original soundtrack and the second including five covers from various bands and assorted demos by Danny Elfman. Another track that’s popped up early is Marilyn Manson’s version of This Is Halloween, available at Deaf Indie Elephants.

What the fuck is going on? Everytime I visited Horror Roundtable contributor Louis Fowler’s blog, there didn’t seem to be any new posts. I chalked it up to a bit of downtime, or perhaps those lovable bastards over at Bookgasm were taking up all his time with Louis’ new comics column over there. But no, the truth was I’m just some kind of idiot who doesn’t know how to work a web browser and Louis has been posting all along. And what posts! In a way I’m glad I haven’t been over there in awhile. It’s like finding twenty dollars in your winter coat from last year. What a pleasant surprise. He’s currently rocking the 80’s cheese in a number of wicked soundtrack sharities, including Trick Or Treat, Black Roses, Freddy’s Greatest Hits and, uh, a disco version of An American Werewolf in London?

Not horror, but who visits on the weekends anyway?

Office Naps is a wonderful little mp3 blog that posts three or four songs taken from 45s under a different theme every week. A few months back they featured a group of songs under the banner “Vocal Noir”, and the name couldn’t be more appropriate, particularly for the first track in the selection. Come and Get Me by Mark Murphy is one bleak little tune and concerns a man imploring his lover to come take him out of the situation he’s in. Of course, he’s singing to a dead woman so it’s unlikely she’ll ever make it, and he’ll be sitting there for the remainder of his life, wasting away.

First you dream, then you die.

Pirate-hating he-man Louis Fowler has been steadily posting the various Dawn of the Dead cuts on his blog, including the U.S. version and Goblin’s contribution, with the promise of more to come. And while you’re at it, you may want to dig around for even more classic cult movie soundtracks.

One thing that definitely hurts my credibility as a horror blogger is my indifference to the original Dawn of the Dead (and the remake, for that matter). It’s not that I think it’s bad, or that it isn’t historically important, but I think Romero was just trying too hard, especially in comparison to the effortless beauty of Night of the Living Dead.

It’s been rumoured for awhile that Mel Brooks’ hilarious homage to Universal horror movies would be next in line for a musical adaptation. I think it might be an even better fit than The Producers. Apparently they’ve just finished the first draft of the script, and Brooks has made some interesting casting suggestions.

The Post also said that Brooks wants Cloris Leachman to re-create the role of horse-frightening Frau Blucher. A Brooks movie veteran, she played the part in the movie.

I’ve never attended musical theatre. Any shows which I found even remotely interesting always seemed to be watered down for the widest possible appeal. Hopefully this will be the one to take my musical virginity.

While deciding on the best way to approach their latest video, The Killers jokingly considered Tim Burton. One thing led to another, Tim Burton agreed to their request, and he’s currently working on the creation of the video for their single “Bones”.

Burton shot the Killers’ performance on August 17-18 in Los Angeles, and according to their label, Island Records, he and a team of animators are now hard at work in London, creating an entire town and cast of characters that inhabit it. While additional details are scarce, the Killers say the clip features plenty of nods to Burton’s big-screen roots — including models, miniature sets and, of course, skeletons — but with a decidedly Vegas twist.

Regular readers of this blog know that I have a special place in my heart for stop-motion animation. It seemed tough and go for awhile there, so it’s nice that this form of animation is getting the resurgence it deserves.

Found via Dark Horizons.

From yesterday’s clip of the day, The Manchester Morgue, comes a music video for the kult klassic Killer Klowns from Outer Space by SoCal proto-punks The Dickies. Just in case you missed it.

When I was first introduced to vinyl sharity sites I had to do a lot of scrounging to find horror soundtracks, and I wondered how long it would take someone to fill that niche. Just a couple months later and I’m wondering how many albums the numerous horror-related sharity sites can post before they run out of material.

I’ve been busy, so I only just stumbled across The Manchester Morgue recently. It contains a couple albums I felt a craving for in the past few months like Fright Night and Return of the living Dead, as well as standards like Phantasm and Nightbreed, and some truly wonderous cult films like Blue Underground and Psycho Beach Party. I could spend all day in there.

X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut’s CosmoBlog is one of my favourite sharity sites. I was going to post a clip of the day to his extensive Dr. Who selection way back when I first began The Horror Blog, but one thing led to another and it got lost in the shuffle. Recently, after a short hiatus, the X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut has produced a whopping 15 soundtracks from various Toho giant monster movies, including Godzilla Vs. The Thing, Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero, and a symphony presentation of some of Akira Ifukube’s more memorable themes. Sprinkled throughout are a smattering of other Japanese fantasy treats, from children’s Godzilla storybook records to the Mahou Sentai MagiRanger album and much more. In fact, all this kaiju talk has inspired me to crack out a dozen or so Godzilla films for a Tokyo-destroying movie marathon.

The Kaiju madness begins here and moves forward to the present.

Warren of 150 Days of Sodom has been quite insistent in getting the word out concerning the T & A-laden video for Captain Ahab’s song Snakes on a Brain. The song was chosen to be featured in the upcoming feature film spectacular Snakes on a Plane, and if you watch carefully you may be able to spot Warren’s co-pilot, Cub.

For some reason this Captain Ahab duo remind me of Right Said Fred.

This has been your obligatory Snakes on a Plane post of the day.

Believe me, I know what you’re saying. How does a musical production, even one as epic as Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, merit a mention on this site? Well, to the best of my knowledge this is the first time both Sasquatch and Satan have appeared together, on the silver screen or elsewhere! And even though he isn’t in the trailer, rumour has it that Ronnie James Dio himself will be making an appearance. Has there ever been a greater confluence of evil in the history of Mankind? No.

An alleged rough cut of the theme for Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake can be found at the website for composer and previous Zombie collaborator Tyler Bates. According to the Rue Mortuary, where I first heard the news, this track has been used as background music during Zombie’s tour, further cementing the reliability of the claim.  Before hearing it, I was worried that he was going to jettison the classic theme entirely, which is arguably the best part of the entire movie.  Upon listening to the track, it seems as if Bates is going for a mash-up of Carpenter’s nerve-wracking score with the underlying industrial sound of Zombie’s ouvre, with a few creaky doors and muffled screams from Wal-mart Haunted House theme CDs thrown in for good measure.  I wouldn’t say this is entirely a bad thing.  I like the idea of combining the wholesome sound of suburban Halloween with more sophisticated scares, but it comes off as a bit of overkill when compared to the simplicity of the original.

DVD Maniacs has a great thread devoted to some of the best funky disco music to ever grace sleazy European exploitation movies. And for a limited time only, you can sample some of the Continent’s greatest horror bootyshakers. These include, but are not limited to, Cannibal Ferox, House at the Edge of the Park, and The Pyjama Girl Case. And don’t forget my favourite, the main theme from Porno Holocaust. If this don’t get you moving, you’re already dead.

I wrestled with the idea of presenting this clip. Breaking away from my mandate of providing horror content exclusively is a slippery slope. Next thing you know, I’ll be posting about comics. Then I realized that I don’t want to live in a world where I have to convince myself to share Post-Apocalyptic Kung-Fu Spaghetti Western Music Videos with my visitors.

Courtesy of one of my favourite blogs, Kung-Fu Fridays.