Musings: Spectre - Lonesome Gambler

It’s been a minute since my last music review on the blog. To be honest, nothing that landed in my inbox in the past two weeks got me excited to write until my favourite indie metal label, Dying Victims Productions (Venator, Running Maiden, Raptore, Animalize, and many more), released Spectre’s latest EP, Lonesome Gambler, last Friday. Spectre is an Australian duo consisting of Will Spectre and David Harrington-George. Lonesome Gambler is a four-track EP available digitally, but if you purchase the CD or tape versions, it includes five bonus tracks collecting the entire output from the band. I’ll have all the details below.

Spectre and Lonesome Gambler have been on my radar ever since pre-orders went up earlier this year. They have a unique sound that I really dig. Old school, late ‘70s/early ‘80s hard rock with a bit of NWOBHM thrown in to sweeten the deal. “Hero of the Illusion” has a sound deeply steeped in classic rock circa 1979-1980 and it sets the tone for the remainder of this brilliant set of songs. “Wolfbane” is a stellar track with equally strong vintage vibes. The title track follows, a terrific slower-paced, nostalgia-tinted song. “Turning the Wheel” is a synth-driven rock anthem reminiscent of Blue Oyster Cult, featuring superb guitar work. This is where the EP ends if you don’t get it on physical media, but have no fear, the five bonus tracks are available on Dying Victims’ Bandcamp and Spectre’s own Bandcamp for a couple of bucks.

We continue at song number 5 from the previous release, 2022’s two-song single released on Dying Victims, “Drifter”, a kick-ass, catchy rocker and its B-side, “The Black Jewel”, a song about the time of the knights. Both tunes are fantastic. Next up, available through Spectre’s own Bandcamp, we have the 2018 single, “Hard Attacks”, a solid classic rock track, albeit sounding less-polished than the songs found on Lonesome Gambler and Drifter. The last two songs are taken from the two-song 2017 debut release, “Silver Invaders”, a cool NWOBHM song with hints of early Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and its B-side, “Stand Alone”, a fun head-bobbing tune to take us out.

Dying Victims continues to hit home runs with these signings of some of the best hard rock, speed metal, thrash metal, and trad metal bands. Spectre delivers their best release yet and I highly recommend picking up the album on CD to get all nine songs. Otherwise, buy the four different releases digitally to have the entire collection, it’s well worth it! Lonesome Gambler just cracked my top ten albums of the year so far, it’s that great! Give these Aussies a spin, you’ll thank me later.

Dying Victims Productions’ Lonesome Gambler Page on Bandcamp: https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/lonesome-gambler

Dying Victims Productions’ Drifter/The Black Jewel Page on Bandcamp: https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/spectre-drifter-the-black-jewel

Spectre on Bandcamp: https://hcrspectre.bandcamp.com/ 

Audiobook Showcase: Weird Tales #367 – Cosmic Horror Issue

Weird Tales Magazine number 367 is a special issue focusing on Cosmic Horror. This is the follow-up issue to the Sword & Sorcery special I reviewed back in January. Weird Tales is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year and they’re going all out, culminating with a very special issue this coming October which will feature classic as well as new stories. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at what’s included in #367.

Table of Contents

“The Eyrie” by Jonathan Maberry

“The City in the Sea: A Hellboy Story” by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden

“When the Stars Are Right: The Weird Tales Origins of Cosmic Horror” by Nicholas Diak

“A Ghost Story for Christmas” by Paul Cornell

“The Forest Gate” by Samantha Underhill

“Night Fishing” by Caitlin R. Kiernan

“The Traveler” by Francesco Tignini

“Cosmic vs Abrahamic Horror” by F. Paul Wilson

“The Last Bonneville” by F. Paul Wilson

“Lost Generations” by Angela Yuriko Smith

“Concerto in Five Movements” by Ramsey Campbell

“Mozaika” by Nancy Kilpatrick

“Inkblot Succubus” by Nikki Sixx

“Laid to Rest” by Tim Lebbon

“Call of the Void - L’appel du vide” by Carol Gyzander

Cosmic Horror is one of my favourite subgenres of horror. When I first started writing my own horror stories, aside from John Carpenter’s original Halloween film, H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is what got me into horror and made me want to be a writer. Even if I’ve pretty much stopped reading horror in the past ten years (for the most part, modern horror doesn’t resonate with me), I’m still very fond of Cosmic Horror tales and this special issue had me at hello. When it comes to short stories, especially in the horror genre, I’m extremely picky, so take my opinion on the included tales with a grain of salt.

Like most short story magazines/collections, we have a mixed bag of great to not-so-good tales. There are also a couple of articles that are all terrific and a few flash fiction pieces. The magazine opens as is Weird Tales tradition with editor Jonathan Maberry’s “The Eyrie” serving as a foreword to introduce the theme of the issue. As for the other articles, Nicholas Diak talks about the Weird Tales origins of Cosmic Horror in “When the Stars Are Right.” He discusses the works of the greats like H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and what might be considered the first Cosmic Horror set of tales in Robert W. Chambers’ “King in Yellow.” The other non-fiction piece is “Cosmic vs Abrahamic Horror” by F. Paul Wilson who discusses ancient religions and their place in horror with their motifs of revenge, biblical evil, and the living dead which are steeped in Abrahamic tradition. A very insightful piece.

I’ll get to the short stories in a moment, but first, let’s get the flash fiction out of the way. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t care for flash fiction. It’s too short to develop any sort of cohesive, engaging narrative and frankly, I really don’t understand the point of it. If it’s your thing, you’ll find in this issue the following flash fic: “The Forest Gate”, “Lost Generations”, and “Inkblot Succubus” penned by Motley Crue’s bassist Nikki Sixx. And now for the pièce de résistance—the short stories. I’ll divide them into two groups: the good to great, and not-so-good.

The good to great: “The City in the Sea: A Hellboy Story” by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. I’m not too familiar with Hellboy, having only read a handful of Mignola’s comics back in the ‘90s, and I haven’t seen any of the movies, but I really dug this tale. It made me want to seek more Hellboy stories. “The Traveler” was quite short but delivered the goods. An engaging tale about a traveler investigating a bright light in the woods at night and weirdness ensues. “The Last Bonneville” by the always reliable F. Paul Wilson gets my vote for best story of the lot. A man hitches a ride and claims to have been the fourth astronaut on Apollo 8. A tale that piques the reader’s curiosity from the get-go and sustains it for the duration with a very satisfying ending. “Mozaika” about an artist who is consumed by her mosaics while she slowly realizes that there is something seriously wrong happening to the outside world was captivating and kept me engaged until the end. “Call of the Void - L’appel du vide” is the story of a woman taking pictures of the Medusa Formation, feeling drawn to it as strange occurrences ensue. This tale felt fresh and fit perfectly with the theme of Cosmic Horror.

The not so good: “A Ghost Story for Christmas” is an homage of sorts to M.R. James, one of the finest ghost story writers that ever lived. While well-written, I didn’t find this tale about a door leading to nowhere particularly engaging. “Night Fishing”, a story about a patient who sees a psychologist and talks about fishing stories while he keeps dark confessions to himself. It never really grabbed me and eventually fell flat. “Concerto in Five Movements” had a great premise—featuring a piper, a sacrifice, and a concert hall—but ultimately failed to live up to my expectations of what a great scribe like Ramsey Campbell can do. “Laid to Rest” by the great Tim Lebbon was a bit of a dud for me. It follows a team on a space expedition who encounters a severe storm. I really wanted to like it, but in the end, I found it to be a forgettable tale.

To bring this collection of tales to life, we have a plethora of the industry’s best narrators all doing a fantastic job reading and acting out the various characters and situations found in the aforementioned stories. Every tale/piece is read by a different narrator, including Scott Brick, Robert Fass, James Anderson Foster, Heath Miller, Neil Hellegers, Roger Clark, Joe Hempel, Edoardo Ballerini, Eunice Wong, Simon Vance, Holly Adams, Chris Henry Coffey, Ralph Lister, and Natalie Naudus. The audiobook version runs a few minutes shy of six hours, making for a very entertaining one-sitting or couple of evenings/afternoons worth of audio play.

There you have it! Those are my thoughts on this special Cosmic Horror issue from the fine folks at Weird Tales. It’s an instant recommendation for fans of Weird Tales, Cosmic Horror, and I think fans of horror in general will enjoy this issue as well. As I said, I’m really picky when it comes to short fiction, so you might find a few of the tales I didn’t care for to be quite interesting. Mileage may vary. I’ll be looking forward to the special October issue; I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful way to commemorate 100 years of Weird Tales.

Rating: Three and a half stars out of five

Get your copy on Audible 

Weird Tales’ Official Website: https://www.weirdtales.com/

Musings: Suspiriorum and AAWKS & AIWASS

Time for a double shot of Musings featuring not two, but three bands! First off, a Texan supergroup of sorts by the name of Suspiriorum featuring Tim Driscoll on lead guitars (of Runescarred), Suzy Bravo on vocals (of Witchcryer), Steve Colca on rhythm guitars (of Destroyer of Light), Joseph Maniscalco on bass and synth (ex-member of Hinayana), and Adrian Voorhees on drums. Their self-titled debut EP is a blend of progressive and occult rock with horror-themed lyrics and atmosphere.

The three-track EP (four tracks if you get it on CD) covers a good range of musical styles. “Regina Di Sangue” is a haunting song and a homage to classic horror flicks. “Mother Suspiriorum” evokes and is inspired by the great Dario Argento film Suspiria and is a terrific classic rock tune. “The Dark Knows” has a riff to die for and is an all-around kick-ass song. The bonus CD-only track is a gorgeous rendition of Blue Öyster Cult’s lesser-known gem “I Love the Night.” It’s a shame that it’s a bonus track as it surpasses the original in my humble opinion.

Suspiriorum is definitely a band to keep an eye on. Their EP is a superb taste of things to come. Fans of Blue Öyster Cult, Coven, Italian prog/occult bands like Goblin and Claudio Simonetti will really dig this mini-album. It plays like a horror movie soundtrack from the days of classic Giallos from Argento, Bava, Fulci, and Martino. Pick it up today!

Suspiriorum on Bandcamp: https://suspiriorum.bandcamp.com/album/suspiriorum

Next up is a 28-minute, two-song split featuring AAWKS and AIWASS. Readers of this blog are no stranger to Canuck trio AAWKS; their phenomenal Heavy on the Cosmic debut LP landed in my Top Five albums of the year in 2022 and I’ve covered them a lot last year. Texas’ one-man army AIWASS I’d heard of, but had never gotten a chance to sample his music. I’ve heard a lot of good things about their 2021 outing, Wayward Gods. The two entities join forces to deliver a stellar psychedelic EP titled The Eastern Scrolls. It’s a concept album which explores the life and legend of Russian mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky. She was best known as one of the founders of Theosophy, a spiritual movement based in the ancient tradition of occultism and the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism.

AAWKS, formerly a quartet and now a trio, is composed of Kris Dzierzbicki on vocals/guitar, Roberto Paraíso on bass, and Randylin Babic on drums. They kick off the collaboration with the song “1831.” This song has that trademark spacey, distorted AAWKS sound that we love from them and they manage to sustain an otherworldly vibe for the duration of the 14 and a half-minute runtime. It gets extra fuzzy and heavy at the halfway mark to later quiet down and go all zen on us to put the listeners into a musical trance.

AIWASS’s track is titled “The Unholy Books” and has a runtime of 13 minutes. From the get-go, it’s a hypnotic song with a quasi-Middle Eastern vibe. It is the quieter flipside of AAWKS’s fuzzier track. The vocals feel ethereal at times and add an extra layer to this esoteric sonic number. The song’s final three minutes feature an entrancing guitar-driven instrumental. The two songs are drastically different yet fit perfectly well together for this concept album. It’s like having night follow day, a perfect order of things.

The Eastern Scrolls is a brilliant collaboration between two of today’s most ground-breaking bands. We are treated to such an eclectic array of musical genres ranging from psychedelic rock to doom to desert rock and even prog. It’s heavy, it’s spacey, it’s meditative, and most of all, it’s spellbinding; it’ll take you on a trip you’ll want to take over and over again. Fans of Monolord, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Fu Manchu will love what AAWKS and AIWASS have to offer. The Eastern Scrolls will be out on August 25th via Black Throne Productions.

AAWKS on Bandcamp: https://aawks.bandcamp.com/

AIWASS on Bandcamp: https://aiwassband.bandcamp.com/ 

Rapid Fire Reviews: Mario Infantes

When Mario Infantes’s instrumental solo album Antidote to a Turbulent Mind landed in my inbox, I was skeptical at first. I receive a lot of instrumental LPs for review consideration and the vast majority of the time I sample a few tracks, they sound generic, and I decline to review them. Not so with Cult of Lilith’s lead singer Mario Infantes’s upcoming album. Antidote to a Turbulent Mind will be released this Friday, July 7^th via Lost Future Records and it’s more than worthy of your time and money.

This synth-driven journey begins with “Antidote”, a terrific atmospheric intro that sets the tone for the entire record. The next two tracks, “Ecstatica” and “Draumavatn”, give off strong Vangelis, Kitaro, and Tangerine Dream vibes, sounding magical and mysterious. “Explore the Woods…” and “…And Find My Grotto”, the LP’s first and second singles respectively, are dreamy, immersive pieces with nature sounds full of catchy rhythms. “Pulso” is both meditative and entrancing—a gem of a tune. “Purrxistence” is probably my favourite song; it has an aura of nostalgia that you can easily lose yourself in. The closing track and third single, “Inexplicably Long Winter”, is a contemplative piece and a fitting exit song.

Antidote to a Turbulent Mind is a phenomenal dungeon synth/ambient album. It plays like a concept album and an imaginary movie soundtrack. It often reminded me of Tangerine Dream’s wonderful Legend film score from 1985. Fans of electronic music, movie soundtracks, ambient/experimental music will find a lot to love here. It’s the perfect album to listen to while you write, draw/paint, when you want to meditate or simply enjoy with some good headphones while drinking a glass of wine. Take it for a spin, you’ll be glad you did!

Mario Infantes on Bandcamp: https://marioinfantes.bandcamp.com/album/antidote-to-a-turbulent-mind 

Short Story Time: Scapegoat

Welcome to a new feature on the blog: Short Story Time. As some of you may know, my alter ego, Alan Draven, has been writing fiction for over seventeen years. I’ve written mainly in the horror and thriller genres, and am now focusing on Sword & Sorcery with my ongoing Amok tales. Back in 2018, leading up to the publication of my then-upcoming thriller Oblique, penned under the pseudonym Neal Vandar (an anagram of Alan Draven), I had decided to republish all my short stories for free as well as a couple of my novellas. The links to those tales have long disappeared so I figured it was time to bring them back and introduce them to new readers. Starting today, I’ll upload one of my short stories or novellas on the first Saturday of every month as a free PDF. It will lead to the publication of the collected Amok tales as a print/Kindle book around November or December 2024.

To get the ball rolling, since we’re in the middle of baseball season, why not start with the only short story I wrote as Neal Vandar back in 2018 titled “Scapegoat.” It’s a baseball tale but I promise you, even if you don’t care for baseball, you’re bound to get a kick out of it. It’s a fantasy tale that deals with the Curse of the Cubs, the love of baseball, some time travel, and a whole lot of nostalgia. It’s 26 pages long so you can read it in one sitting. You can download it right here. If you enjoy this tale, drop me a line here or on Twitter to let me know; I always love to hear from my readers. You can come back here on August 5^th for another free story, and in the meantime, you can swing by anytime to read about metal/doom music, audiobooks of all kinds, and some Sword & Sorcery talk. Happy reading!