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What’s up my Sorry State fiends and ghouls?
Only a few days left until All Hallows Eve, can you believe it? The best day of the year falls on a Friday this time, so I’m hoping it ends up being a night to remember. I will most likely be spending my Halloween in Richmond this year. I’ve heard there’s a parade and a cover show, so that sounds like fun. Hope all you readers out there have some fun and spooky plans as well.
Wanted to mention that Public Acid is playing our first gig in a while, which is coming up in Philly on November 9th. It’s Dark Thoughts’ LP release show, along with Beton Arme and KOS. I imagine it’ll be a really good one. Then, a couple weeks after that, Usman and I will travel to Stockholm to hang out for a week and go see Totalitär and Missbrukarna. Any friends in Sweden hit us up! We’d love to get together and hang out :)
Might take me a minute to get to my staff pick, but follow me here…
So, the other night, I watched the 1986 classic Trick or Treat. This movie is a great snapshot of 80s heavy metal and horror coming together. For those unfamiliar with this film, the plot focuses on our protagonist Eddie, also known by his nickname “Ragman,” who is a total outcast at school and heavy metal fanatic. He learns that the singer of his favorite band, controversial figure Sammi Curr, has died tragically in a house fire. A local radio DJ personality, played by Gene Simmons giving a hilarious performance, gifts Eddie an acetate of an unreleased Sammi Curr album entitled “Songs in the Key of Death”… Pretty funny, I wonder if Stevie ever heard about this. Eddie is tormented by the voice of Sammi from beyond the grave. If Eddie plays the acetate on Halloween night, Sammi will be resurrected from the dead! Hilarious 80s cheese in all its glory. Ozzy Osbourne makes a great cameo as an evangelical moral crusader, raving against the filth in heavy metal lyrics. It’s hilarious. Ozzy’s character along with the general depiction of demonizing heavy metal culture must be a reference to political conservatism and its effect on pop culture during that 80s era. My brain immediately thought of Dee Snider’s hearing with the PMRC, as well as the “de-metalling” segment in Decline of Western Civilization—Part II. But it’s a great movie; would recommend.
Sorry for the overly long synopsis. I get passionate; what can I say? But my whole point is that one of the most notable things about Trick or Treat is the soundtrack. Used as the songs performed by Sammi Curr and his fictional band in the movie, the entire soundtrack was recorded by the band Fastway. Fastway featured Fast Eddie Clarke on guitar after he left Motorhead. The singer of Fastway went on to be in some band that sings about four-leaf clovers, where people wear kilts to their shows or something like that… Anyway, it’s cool to have a soundtrack that’s just as memorable as the movie itself.
Fuck man, that was a long-winded, roundabout way to get to my staff pick, but here we go:
Basically, my overall theme here is horror soundtracks. Sorry State just got in these cassettes, which I’m stoked to say perfectly encapsulate the essence and same love that I have for 80s horror soundscapes. I’m talking about this new tape by a project called The Ancient Pulse. If you couldn’t already tell by the artwork and packaging, based on the aliases/pseudonyms alone, I’m pretty sure this recording is the work of Austin from Blazing Eye and Bungee from Personal Damage (not to mention all of Sorry State’s killer artwork as of late). This tape is awesome. It advertises: “WARNING: SPINE-CHILLING SOUNDS OF THE DEPRAVED UNDERWORLD ...PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!” With each track, these compositions are like a love letter to the cold, creepy synthwave scores of all our favorite 80s horror favorites. As soon as the first track “Hair on The Inside” cold opens with a werewolf howl, which sounds like a soundbite lifted straight off of a novelty “Halloween Horrors” sound effects record, I feel like I’m instantly riding on a wave of nostalgia. It’s like the perfect music to play at your Halloween party, in the background of your haunted house… you name it!
The Ancient Pulse captures everything grandiose and terrifying, while simultaneously hilariously cheesy and corny about horror movie soundtracks, all compiled within this recording. It’s got everything: hazy, atmospheric and instantly recognizable synth sounds, smokin’ hot 80s shredding guitar leads, a canned and artificial, yet driving and propulsive drum machine, wolves howling, lightning striking, a heartbeat pumping at increasing velocity, crows squawking, doors slowly creaking open… but for all the atmospheric, experimental passages, the tape has some serious bops as well. The track “Grave Dancing” is a perfect example. It’s super groovy and danceable, providing some fun levity from all the spookiness. Difficult not to imagine Linnea Quigley gettin’ down in a graveyard to this track.
The sounds and orchestration of these tracks are so well-done and authentic, it’s almost hard to believe it was created by 2 punks in their bedrooms. Maybe Vestron Video was able to kick in for the budget? But seriously, it’s so cool that these dudes are this talented beyond writing great punk and hardcore music. The eerie, smoky sonic landscapes are on par with the classic synth score work of John Carpenter. Funny enough, looking at the credits on the Ancient Pulse Bandcamp, this dude Irfan is thanked for letting them borrow his Juno-106 synthesizer. Carpenter famously used this synth on all his classic movie scores, whether we’re talking the iconic, fear-inducing title theme from Halloween, or the isolating, melancholic adventure you’ll never come back from in Escape from New York. What’s even funnier is that I know Irfan, and I was just laughing reading his name credited while remembering Public Acid driving with Irfan to go get burritos at 3am while we were in East LA. So cool.
Hearing this tape, the way it makes me feel honestly, is that it’s so damn good, it almost makes you wish there was a horror movie that actually existed—a movie as classic and deserving enough to have a soundtrack this great to be paired along with it. Who knows? Maybe the Ancient Pulse will be commissioned to score a badass punk-horror crossover as good as Return of the Living Dead one day. Considering how much great punk and hardcore exists out there, and how interest remains consistent in horror movies these days, I’m surprised a movie like this hasn’t happened yet. I feel like a fresh punk-horror classic is long overdue.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Seriously, check this Ancient Pulse tape out. It’s so fuckin’ rad.
‘Til next week when Halloween will be behind us :(
-Jeff