Song of the Week - Of Wolf and Man

Any full moon gets me thinking about werewolves, October especially though. So I dedicate this song of the week to the art of the werewolf transformation. This video has several of my favorite sequences in here including the blood chilling howl from John Landis' horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London, Joe Dante's The Howling, Fred Dekker's The Monster Squad (The Wolf Man's got nards!), Stephen King's Silver Bullet, Dog Soldiers, Ginger Snaps... the video is done in time to Metallica's Of Wolf and Man from the Black album which makes for an obvious but excellent choice...
so until next full moon, keep calm and carry silver!

Song of the Week: Joy to the World

No no, never fear, I'm not already getting into the holiday spirit... I happen to be referring to a song by Combichrist off their Joy of Gunz album. I always found it particularly interesting since the 'lyrics' are actually samples of an interview with the infamous Charles Manson. Manson and Family were convicted for the horrific and grisly Tate-Bianca murders in 1969. The song is sampled from an interview with Heidi Schulman from 1987. At first listen I didn't quite fully grasp who was speaking until the switch flicked and I realized whose words were echoing in my ears. The full interview is quite interesting since Manson shows an interesting range of varied emotions during it's course. It also features some interesting quotes again ranging from bone-chillingly cold...

....to downright fucking hilarious

In case wondering just what in the fuck he says there it's:
Do you feel blame? Are you mad? Uh, do you feel like wolf kabob Roth vantage? Gefrannis booj pooch boo jujube; bear-ramage. Jigiji geeji geeja geeble Google. Begep flagaggle vaggle veditch-waggle bagga?

Yup. Ol' Charlie said it best alright. Combichrist has a unique appreciation for murders and the macabre and they make an excellent pair. So Joy to the World!

And for those of you interested here is the full video interview with Charlie:

Ultimate Halloween Mixtape

Death by stereo!

Horror movies have actually helped my love for music as well. Early on I associated songs with the movies they appeared it which always gave me a giggle from my own personal jokes at hearing Credence Clearwater Revival while clothes shopping or Clearing up the Town as a theme to a basketball final when I was a kid.  
This is a playlist of a mixtape I found on a blog almost 7 years ago... it compiles what I think to be some of the best songs from horror movies... it covers a wide variety of films, artists and genres... from the heavy metal of Motörhead and Megadeth to the sexy saxing from Michael Sembello to the punk rock of The Ramones and Dramarama, it even includes the wackiness of Weird Al and The Fat Boys!


01 - Alice Cooper - He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) (Friday the 13th Part VI)
02 - Dokken - Dream Warriors (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3)
03 - The Dudes Of Wrath - Shocker (Shocker)04 - Motörhead- Hellraiser 3 (Hellraiser 3)
05 - .45 Grave - Party Time (Zombie Version) (Return of the Living Dead)
06 - AC/DC - Who Made Who (Maximum Overdrive)
07 - Dramarama - Anything, Anything (A Nightmare On Elm Street 4)
08 - The Fat Boys - Are You Ready For Freddy (A Nightmare On Elm Street 4)
09 - J. Geils Band - Fright Night (Fright Night)
10 - The Dickies - Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Killer Klowns from Outer Space)
11 - Divinyls - Back to the Wall (A Nightmare On Elm Street 4)
12 - Tim Cappello - I Still Believe (The Lost Boys)
13 - Ozzy Osbourne - Secret Loser (The Wraith)14 - Ian Hunter - Good Man in a Bad Time (Fright Night)15 - Michael Sembello - Rock Until You Drop (Monster Squad)16 - Metropolis - Darkest Side of the Night (Friday the 13th Part 8)17 - Autograph - You Can't Hide From the Beast Inside (Fright Night)18 - Fastway - Trick or Treat (Trick or Treat)19 - Megadeth - No More Mr. Nice Guy (Shocker)20 - Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys)
21 - The Ramones - Pet Sematary
22 - Goo Goo Dolls - I'm Awake Now (Freddy's Dead)
Bonus Track - The Elm Street Group - Do The Freddy
Bonus Track - Weird Al Yankovic - Nature Trail to Hell


So as a special Samhain gift to you, my loving readers I have uploaded it so you all can have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Song of the Week: Ultra Street Fighter

No you didn't miss a Street Fighter installment. But fans of the early 90's animated movie may remember the fight between Chun Li and Vega in her apartment, I sure did. At the time I wasn't one for associating music to the movie, only later as I came to appreciate industrial music did I fully appreciate this song. So Chun Li is showering when she is attacked by the claw-handed masked maniac Vega and we cue up Seattle's own KMFDM and their song Ultra for a knockdown dragout brawl.
Skip to 3:35 for the fight and the song.... but you'd miss out on some very most excellent Chun Li footage.... otherwise... here ya go the song of the week

Or just the song if you'd prefer:

Song of the Week: Bad Moon Rising

Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.

Greetings boils and ghouls! It's your Humble Narrator Shadow Jerusalem here tonight with a very special edition of Song of the Week.

Well if you happen to be outside tonight and look up you'll notice it's a full moon. Kinda makes you want to get where you're going all the quicker doesn't it? Any horror enthusiast knows that the full moon is when any lycanthropy-beleaguered individual undergoes their monthly transformation to full-blown werewolf (or wolfman such as it is).
The moon has been getting a bad rep since the ancient Greeks and Romans, they believed it caused mania or insanity in an individual, hence the term lunacy.
John Landis' 1981 classic An American Werewolf in London. Two American students hiking through the English moors are attacked by a wild animal on a full moon, David survives only to be haunted by the rotting corpse of his friend Jack insisting he kill himself before the next full moon. Well needless to say David doesn't heed his advice and come the full moon... let's just say things get hairy.

This transformation stands out to me because it's done fully lit, in plain view and without the usage of CGI. Rick Baker (King Kong, Hellboy, too many others to name) was the creative genius behind the werewolf effects not only in this movie but worked on Joe Dante's The Howling, Mike Nichol's Wolf, Joe Johnson's 2010 remake of The Wolf Man and last but certainly not least the scarily delightful music video to Michael Jackson's Thriller

But the song of the week is what plays just prior to his transformation

So for tonight this is your lycanthropic pal Shadow saying, beware the moon stay on the road, and load up the silver, it's the ONLY way to kill a werewolf
Now if you'll excuse me my 5 o'clock shadow is getting bushier and I feel the need for raw red meat

Song of the Week: Earth's Final Hour

"I'll point out the folly of man to ya!"

So this is a special video to me since it was a vision that was shared by my friend Schiefer aka RoguePred to my ShadowHunter from the old Gamegossip and Aliens vs Predator forums back in the day. I shared the idea of Manson's "Last Day on Earth" to the original Gojira (Godzilla, King of the Monsters here in the states). What turned out still gives me the chills to this day!

"Hi kids! Wanna play?"

Take Gojira, a movie rife with heavy social commentary about the horrors of man gone awry and filter it through the madness that is another modern version of man's indulgences, sin and vices and thrown back in our face in the form of Marilyn Manson in his song "The Last Day on Earth" from his Mechanical Animals album. The album itself conveys an overall cold sense of unfeeling, mechanical as it were and the lyrics are equally cold and dark like walking through snowflakes in the dark. Cheers Rogue, keep up the good work and we'll see you next time!