Tag: writing

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February 2023: Pitter Patter

Howdy, folks!

Once again, February has careened past me in a Dodge Viper with the top down, flipping me off aggressively as it screams away into the rear-view mirror. Which is to say: compared to the inexorable length of January, I am once again bemused by how quickly this month has gone past. It’s felt like a busy one!

The Usual

Most of my “creative docket” this month has again been taken up by various bits of admin and not actual writing, which is a state of affairs that I need to try and improve on. Given the number of projects that are moving towards some state of fruition and are already written, though, it doesn’t feel as urgent – I got ahead of myself last year (and the year before that), and my logic-brain is reminding me that there’s no point having another series fully written and sitting on the backburner while I can’t guarantee the funds to make it happen. Let’s clear a few other things off the slate first!

First amongst those is a Kickstarter with my good friend Professor Elemental – over the past 10 years we’ve made a lot of comics together (over 200 pages’ worth, to be exact) and the time has come to finally put together a big artbook/collection of those stories so that they’re all accessible in one mighty hardback tome, alongside a ton of other artwork that the Prof’s mini-empire has spun off. I’ve been building the campaign page for that and we’re anticipating a launch towards the end of next month, so just a heads up that you may get additional emails from me when it goes live to encourage you to take a look! As usual there’ll be digital and physical copies available, and postage will be much more affordable within the UK (sorry, non-UK readers, but it costs an insane amount of money to post a hardback book these days..!)

Brigantia #4/Vol. 2 also continues to roll onwards, with pace – Alaire is doing a phenomenal job with the pages, and I’m very excited to share them with you all. Here’s a sneaky peek of an inked page to whet your collective whistle:


Realistically, given that I’m having to take a bit of a break from Thought Bubble this year (due to a family wedding, I’d only be able to do the Saturday, so I’ve only applied for a half table), we’ll not be able to launch it at TB this year – but I’m anticipating all the inks being finished by the end of the year, so come 2024, we can finish off Brigantia’s story (for now..!)

So, some solid progress being made on some fronts! Let’s keep it going 🙂

The Record

  • 18 pages lettered for The Phoenix
  • Yet more worldbuilding doc stuff for SPACE COWBOYS

Hot on the heels of the book-length story I lettered for The Phoenix last month, I was also tasked with lettering some in-between pages to fill the gaps between that story and the other ones that will be included in the collection. This was my first real experience of a very tight deadline, and it was not a fun time at all – I worked my regular 9-5 day job, but was doing extra hours before and after work trying to get all the pages done in time while not skipping band practices. I managed it (18 pages in just over a week!) but I was absolutely shattered on the Friday after I’d turned them in and slept for about 12 hours! Hopefully it’ll be a while before something like that comes around again…

Also, the recurrence of the SPACE COWBOYS worldbuilding doc should provide some clues to what’s going on with that – I’ve found an artist for the story, and we’ll hopefully be starting work on some character designs/pitch pages next month. It’s very exciting to get to this stage on a story that’s extremely personal to me (for a variety of reasons, it’s the most emotionally-charged thing I’ve ever written) so I’ll be looking forward to sharing snippets of that as they get drawn!

The Tunes

Let’s get some music in your lugholes! An eclectic mix this month – we’re starting off with the Tallon Overworld theme from Metroid Prime, reimagined by the fantastic Metroid Metal. I’ve been pouring hours into the remastered version of Prime that just came out – it’s a phenomenal achievement, and the game looks (and plays) wonderfully. Next, and continuing the alien theme, is the opening track from the newer version of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. I love the original as well, but Liam Neeson is a genius casting for the Narrator and this remains a certified banger. Orphaned Land are a great prog-metal band from Israel, who’ve put out some classic albums (like Mabool, which is just fantastic). Apparently they have a large Arab fanbase, and this track in particular hammers home their message of peace between different faiths with uplifting choruses and a pristine guitar tone. I spent a day at work listening to an AFI best-of – my partner is a huge AFI fan, and they have some great songs (like this one, which doesn’t fuck around!) New discovery up next – Pyramid Mass play space infused death-doom, and I was drawn in by the Moebius vibes of the cover art for this release. This track twists and turns a few times, with some weighty riffs scattered throughout.

Black metal time? Black metal time. Skeletonwitch’s last album remains a surprising but wonderful thing – fantastic-sounding atmospheric BM with some savage riffs sitting beneath the reverby guitar tone. Next is another new discovery, Hekseblad – my best description for this is “Witcher-themed raw dungeon synth BM”. It’s a fun listen! I’ve been fiddling around with some chiptune stuff this month again (I still have dreams of putting together a solo release of chiptune stuff), so this track from Zef & Danimal Cannon was on the inspiration list for that. Big, bouncy electronic riffs that will make you bang your head – similar vibe to Master Boot Record (except this came out first!) Another new The Ocean track next which highlights that this new album is definitely going in a more electronic direction – and I dig it. Lastly, hot off the presses is a new Svalbard track from their forthcoming album. It sounds great, but I feel like it ends too soon – give me more of those riffs please!

The Links

This isn’t a recent link, but we’ve finally started watching the most recent seasons of Letterkenny so I’m taking this opportunity to tell you that you should also watch it if you haven’t already:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/11/20909844/letterkenny-hulu-review-pitter-patter

And that’s all for this month – as ever, take care of yourselves and thanks for reading!

All the best,

Chris

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January 2023: All Systems Go

Hey folks,

I know we’re only one month into 2023, but it feels like half the year has flown by already – I know, I know, time is a relative concept, but I hope it calms down at some point. This will probably be a fairly busy newsletter (I’ve even got some STUFF to SHARE) so let’s crack in!

The Usual

I always find that January turns into a month of calendar juggling, where I try and get some things in place for later in the year (not least so I have something to look forward to). And this year promises to be a big one in that regard – we’re in the middle of redecorating a large chunk of our house (because I finally ran out of patience with the horrible textured wallpaper), I’ve finally booked in some sessions to get the Japanese half-sleeve tattoo on my left arm done (I’ve had the right one since 2017 and the left is intended to be a companion piece to that) and we might even try and squeeze in a holiday.

On the creative front… hoo boy. Brigantia Vol. 2 is well and truly underway (and here’s a sneaky peek at our boy Veteris, from the prodigiously talented hands of Alaire):


I’m going to be running at least two crowdfunders this year (for a Prof Elemental collection and a collection of my oceanic sci-fi/horror Hadopelagic, with Neil McClements), with two more potentially in the running depending on how everything shakes out (Secrets of the Majestic, and Brigantia Vol. 2 depending on how quickly Alaire gets through the pages) – four campaigns might be a bit bloody much though, so I’m going to have to decide whether any of those can be pushed back to 2024.

What could this be about….? 👀

I’ve got a pitch floating around out there which I want to try and get picked up, and have just teamed up with an artist for another pitch which I’m very excited about.

And on top of all that, my band Ba’al have booked ourselves two weeks of studio time in the summer to record both a new album and a new EP, because we wrote far too much music (roughly 90 mins or so) and need to split it into two releases!

It’s a pretty daunting list, but I’ll put one foot in front of the other and get as many things ticked off as I can. Here’s hoping December’s round-up is a full one..!

The Record

  • 26 pages lettered for The Phoenix
  • 1-page anthology submission plotted
  • Worldbuilding and references for SPACE COWBOYS

Lettered a small book-length story for The Phoenix this month, which was v. cool and a nice little challenge. Definitely the most pages I’ve ever lettered over a couple of weeks, and I’d love to do more to really get my hand in!

That aside, as a consequence of the previous section (getting all my ducks in a row) I haven’t properly written anything all month. I don’t see a lot of value in scripting something that I won’t feasibly be able to get moving on for a long while – because by the time it’s the next project up, I’ll probably want to rewrite whole swathes of it. That stance will probably change as the year progresses because I have a few things outlined and ready to work on, I just need to get myself in the right mindset and find a balance (between day job, band practices, existing projects and just trying to have an evening to relax now and then..!)

The Tunes

Back to your regularly-scheduled “here’s what Chris is listening to” programming this month. First up, my favourite band The Ocean are back with this teaser for their upcoming new album – and they definitely have strong feelings about the current intellectual climate, going by the lyrics. After that, we take a trip through some vaporwave/cybernetic landscapes with new music from Boucle Infinie, Isaac Soto and Martin Ahm Nielsen/Code Elektro – close your eyes and let the digital wave wash over you. A brief orchestral break is courtesy of Aaron Grubb’s lovely rendition of Gerudo Valley (from the Zelda series), and then we’re into heavier(ish) climes, starting with Foo Fighters – I recommended Sonic Highways (both the TV show and the album) to someone this month and it reminded me how much I enjoy those songs, particularly this one with it’s orchestral vibe towards the end. The new Ahab album came out of nowhere (for me) but it’s excellent, funeral doom from under the sea. It’s followed by the excellent SONJA – trad heavy metal with a fierce as fuck trans frontwoman and great vocal lines. The last two tracks take us into more upbeat territory – Babymetal remain one of the most enjoyable bands in my rotation, and this song just slaps. Watch a live video for the full effect! And lastly, my favourite Ayreon album got remixed & remastered last year, so here’s a banger from the back end of the double album – a cosmic flight through space that laments the plight of our doomed world. Cheerful!

The Links

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/enys-men-folk-horror-b2258886.html

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I absolutely adore folk horror – it’s right in the sweet spot of what I love about the horror genre, and can run the gamut from shlocky 70s classics like The Blood on Satan’s Claw to “elevated”, “arthouse” fare like Midsommar. I’m extremely curious about watching Enys Men at some point, and this feature both stokes that curiosity and provides some good context for the folk horror “boom” we’re seeing at the moment. Plus, it’s a little quicker than watching all 3 and a quarter hours of Kier-La Janisse’s (excellent) documentary “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched“, which is truly exhaustive in scope..!

I have a folk horror story idea kicking around (because of course I do, so does everyone), but because of how much the genre resonates with me, I’m very conscious of the need to do it “properly”. I don’t want to just shit out something packed with cheap scares and call it a day! The result is more reading and watching (research, rather) until I feel like I’ve got a good enough background to do my own twist on the genre. Watch this space..!

That’s all for this month – thanks for reading this far if you made it. We’re through the longest month of the year! Imbolc is round the corner and it can only get brighter from here on out, so take care of yourselves and find things to look forward to.

Cheers,

Chris

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December 2022: That Was The Year That Was

Hey folks,

As per usual, this month’s newsletter will be a little different as I attempt to encapsulate my 2022 in numbers and lists and general screaming into the void. Strap in!

The Usual

I understand why the end of the year lends itself to being a time of introspection and reflection – there’s a sense of finality, a feeling of turning towards pastures new (even if those pastures are, in reality, the same pastures you’ve been grazing from for the past 12 months but with a slightly different sign on the fence). It’s nice to look back at what I managed to get done this year (a fair bit, all things considered!) But I’m making a conscious effort this year to avoid thinking about what I hope to achieve next year.

The truth of it, as laid bare by the last few years, is that we can’t predict anything with certainty and making resolutions (in my mind) is just a pathway to disappointment. I know what I’d like to achieve, but so much of it is out of my control that it’s not worth getting worked up about it – I’ll just deal with the things I can control, and leave the rest to the tender mercies of fate!

With all that said, I am very proud at managing to get Brigantia Vol. 1 out in the wild this year – it’s been a long time coming (never let anyone tell you that it’s easy to release a self-published independent comics series..!) but I’m very chuffed with how it looks and hopeful that I can shove it into more people’s hands next year. Obligatory shill (if you’d like a copy): https://chrismole.bigcartel.com/product/brigantia-vol-1

Anyway, without further ado, here’s…

The Record

  • Pages written: 71 (2021 total: 113)
  • Pages lettered: 78 (2021 total: 33)
  • Anthology pitches outlined/submitted: 3

It’s a little wild to me that my lettering output this year actually surpassed my writing – but it makes sense, I’ve been getting a steady stream of pages from The Phoenix all year and due to lettering a few anthology stories (Big Hype, Sharp Wit & The Company of Women) that I also wrote I can see why that total has crept up. Long may it continue! I’m hopeful that some of those pages will see the light next year, but we’ll find out – I imagine that a chunk of my January is going to be spent sending emails and figuring out what to do about the various projects on the list. Now that I’ve finished the actual writing on SPACE COWBOYS I need to start contacting artists and figure out which script to tackle next…

The Tunes

It’s a “best of 2022” playlist! These are all tracks that came out this year and have been solidly in my rotation – and it’s very much a playlist of two halves, with a bunch of pop/disco/electronica bangers from Florence + The Machine, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, The Midnight and Metric at the start before we get into the heavy shit with Zeal & Ardor, Ibaraki, Asunojokei, Wormrot and Chat Pile (which wins the award for “most unsettling song I heard this year by a country mile”). Fill yer boots!

2022’s Top 5 Things

I stole this idea from someone on Twitter, because I like it – here’s my list of top 5 things from this year! Could be a comic, a movie, an album or just a particular experience. In ascending order:

5. Wonder Woman: Dead Earth (comic) – I know this came out in 2020/2021 but I’m absolutely terrible at keeping up with comics (there are still plenty from this year which I have on my pile but haven’t read yet). I picked the collected hardcover up from OK Comics this summer and devoured it – Daniel Warren Johnson’s artwork is absolutely wild and the story manages to walk the fine line between apocalyptic dystopia and the kind of hope and emotion that I expect from Wonder Woman. It’s truly a unique book – I can’t imagine any other writer/artist doing something like this, let alone doing it this well. Highly recommended!

4. Andor (TV series) – I’ve been a Star Wars nerd for many years now, since I grew up wearing out my parents’ VHS copies of the Original Trilogy, and my relationship to that universe has evolved and changed over time. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from Andor, but I was blown away – it’s a powerful, maturely-written and acted series with a laser-focused central thesis (to wit: give the fascists and inch and they’ll take a mile, and the only solution is to simply refuse to give in and to fight at every step) and plenty of emotional depth. Plus, it looks phenomenal, both in the cinematography and the set design. I’m excited to see where they go with season 2!

3. Florence + The Machine – Dance Fever (album) – This will be surprising to absolutely nobody. I’ve loved F+TM since 2018’s High As Hope, and (appropriately) my hopes were high for this – so I’m very pleased to report that they were utterly smashed. It’s a very different-sounding record (with more of a disco groove to it) but it works perfectly – vocally, Florence has rarely sounded better and there’s a real sense of unhinged, almost pagan celebration to some of the tracks on this release. It’s an outpouring of love for the concept of music and dance, and it’s been my absolute no.1 listen this year.

2. Everything Everywhere All At Once (movie) – Reams of words have already been written about this movie, and I just want to add to the chorus. I’m so glad I took myself out on a cinema trip to see it, because I was blown away – it’s a feast of imagination and inventiveness anchored by incredible performances from Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu. It’s wild, heart-rending, hilarious and poignant all at the same time. I mean, the title is extremely apt – it’s everything, everywhere, all at once!

1. Visiting Naples – it’s been a good few years since I went on an actual holiday, due to a combination of the global pandemic (obviously) and quite frankly being unable to afford one. This year we finally managed to tick something off the bucket list, and went to Naples in Italy for a short break. I ate pizza for about 75% of my meals and gawked at incredible churches and statues in the city museum – it was divine. But my highlight of the trip was standing in the centre of Pompeii, gazing out at incredibly preserved buildings from almost 2000 years ago and feeling the absolute weight of history around me. I wasn’t sure what to expect before we went, but there were streets, and pavements, and crossing points – if you squint and concentrate a little, the crowds of tourists easily become toga-clad Roman citizens going about their lives. It’s a singularly unique and amazing experience to be able to reach back through time like that and it left me feeling both humbled and emotionally fulfilled.

And that’s it from me for this year! Thanks (as ever) for reading – I appreciate being able to splurge my words into your inboxes once a month. If you’re doing anything to celebrate the closing of 2022’s chapter in the heavy, heavy book of history, have a great time – if (like me) you’ll just be at home relaxing then I hope it’s a very chill evening.

See you in 2023!

All the best,

Chris

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November 2022: Stratospheric

Hey, folks!

I suspect this month’s newsletter is going to turn into a long one, given that it’s been a busy month, so apologies for that in advance – strap in, let’s get to it!

The Usual

Let’s do a Thought Bubble recap, shall we? This month saw me yet again in attendance at (in my opinion) the UK’s premier comic convention, Thought Bubble in Harrogate. As with every year, it was a delight to see so many pals that I spend a lot of time chatting to/interacting with online in person, and I managed to squeeze in enough socialising to keep me going for at least the next 6 months. Some highlights of the weekend:

  • Initiating several people into the Cult of the Majestic Toilets (and deciding, perhaps against my better judgement, to try and put together a toilet anthology for next year’s convention…)
  • Meeting Gail Simone, who I’m pleased to confirm is not a bear and is in fact a lovely human being
  • Drinks and good times with the Dangerous Nights crew
  • Making more money than I ever have at TB before, to the extent that I covered my hotel and table fees and got into (whisper it) actual profit! …profit which I then promptly spent on buying stuff from other tables. Oh well!


I know I say this every year, but comics people are the best people, and it’s a mantra that’s proven true every time. It’s truly a vibrant, welcoming, creative environment, and as is always the case I came home buzzing with the desire to make more comics! I don’t have space to shout out everyone who made it an incredible weekend, but you know who you are and I appreciate the heck out of each one of you 😤🖤

Since I finished sending out all of the Kickstarter packages (except for the three people who haven’t completed their surveys yet) in the first week of November, Thought Bubble also saw the official debut of Brigantia Volume 1 and it was extremely gratifying being able to show it off to people. Now that I’m out of the fulfilment woods I’ve taken a step back and can appreciate how much work we’ve put into it – I think the book looks beautiful, and I’m very proud of it. I’ve been reaching out to various comic shops (so I believe it’s now available in Gosh! Comics down in London, Travelling Man in various branches, and Destination Venus in Harrogate) – plus I’ve added the book to my online store and Comixology, so it’s officially available to the general public! If you’d like a copy (or you’re after gift ideas), it’ll be posted out in plenty of time for Christmas: https://chrismole.bigcartel.com/product/brigantia-vol-1

The Record

Even though I haven’t sat down and actually scripted many pages this month, it’s felt extremely busy! Part of that is lettering work, part of it is trying to get ducks in a row for some other projects. Anyway, here’s the count:

  • 8 pages outlined for The Black Rubric II
  • Prose piece written for a one/two-pager
  • Initial notes/plans/ideas for ‘Secrets of the Majestic’ (the aforementioned “toilet anthology”)
  • 8 pages lettered for The Phoenix
  • 3 pages lettered for Sharp Wit & The Company of Women

Phew! The lettering workload is likely to continue into next month as I need to finish the pages for “Let Justice Be My Axe“, and I’ve also agreed to letter some anthology stories for my good friend Owen Watts. Space Cowboys #4 and #5 have also gone off to my mighty editor Claire Napier – the last two issues of the story, so once those come back with notes on I can tweak them accordingly and we can start actively hunting for an artist (and try to come up with a proper title for it..!)

On top of that, one of the bands I’m in (Ba’al) have now finished writing new material – we’ve got 9 new songs, most of them epic-length ones, and the next step is to tweak/refine them and figure out any extra bits we want to add in. It’s a very different creative process to writing music or comics solo, but just as satisfying – especially when just throwing riff ideas around in the room results in an extremely heavy/catchy/atmospheric song!

Lastly, it doesn’t count as comics work, but I’ve done a load of wallpaper stripping this month and I’m getting ever closer to being able to bring in a professional to replaster/redecorate the spare room and the stairs. The tyrannical reign of the awful, textured, 80s wallpaper which fills most of the rooms in my house is almost at an end!

The Tunes

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ABZZgvR7xZRrKa88nVk6C?si=5a8c0b12f2f048df
This month’s playlist runs the gamut from “tracks which link to stuff I did” to “heavy shit I’ve been enjoying”. We start things off with a blast from the past – the World Map theme from the phenomenal Final Fantasy Tactics by Masaharu Iwata. I was struck by the sudden urge to play this game again, and overjoyed to find that my tablet will run the Android version – it remains wonderfully written and fun. Next up is a track from the recent re-release of the Dredd soundtrack, remixed by Mogwai – I went over to Leeds the night before Thought Bubble to get my hands on the vinyl for this and it was very worth it, since I got to hang out with pals Rik Worth and Alfie Gallagher and watch Jock live-paint an amazing Dredd piece! Continuing the “comics” theme, here’s a heavy metal version of the famous Batman theme by Powerglove – the tragic news of Kevin Conroy’s passing hit while we were socialising at TB, and I think my Christmas break will be spent binging the animated series in tribute. Public Service Broadcasting are up next – I go back to this album a lot (and have put this song in playlists before) but it’s just so, so good! One more nerd song before we get to the heavy shit – Steel & Silver by Visigoth is based on the Witcher and has a very catchy power metal chorus which WILL get stuck in your head. Next up are a couple of big atmospheric black metal tracks I’ve been exposed to this month – An Abstract Illusion with a monolithic song, then the phenomenal Molten Gold by Toadeater. Weird band name, incredible album! Next is a classic Borknagar song – again, I’ve been listening to them a lot this month just because they’re great and fill me full of nostalgia for my college days. Penultimately we have a track by Brazilian prog-black-metal band Papangu recommended by my pal Adam who was an excellent table assistant at Thought Bubble, and rounding things off is a new MASTER BOOT RECORD track which showcases their unique blend of chiptune and heavy riffs.

#WiegrafWasRight

The Links

I know that Twitter is on fire and slowly sinking beneath the waves thanks to a certain edgelord techbro, but here’s something delightful for you to get your teeth into – artist pal Jordan Collver, going through his process for researching and producing scientifically-rigorous comics which play with the form (and look beautiful, to boot!): https://twitter.com/JordanCollver/status/1597605358817931265?t=LRtnSYM-neP50WufEJ-rcw&s=19

And that’s all for this month! Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you have a lovely December – next month’s update will probably take the form of a yearly round-up with some recs for various things I’ve enjoyed this year and you may have missed.

All the best!

Chris

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October 2022: All Aboard

Howdy, folks!

It’s been a busy old month, so without further ado:

The Usual

It’s funny how having a project unfinished makes you feel like you’re in a kind of suspended animation – it’s tough to allocate brain space to anything else because you have that lurking, lingering spectre of “you need to finish this first” squatting up there. With that said, earlier this month I finally got the (beautiful) printed copies delivered for Brigantia Vol. 1, and as of this going out, I’ve made a start on the postage! Overseas postage is going to be a nightmare because since I ran the campaign, costs have increased exponentially and the UK government decided it would be a great idea to force small creatives like me to jump through a million flaming hoops in order to post things outside the UK… but I’m committed to getting these packages out as swiftly as possible, because I’m very aware of how delayed they are. And once that’s done, maybe I can clear brain space for something else… right?

Next month also sees me stalking the halls of my favourite comic convention, Thought Bubble in Harrogate! It’s always a fantastic weekend of meeting up with comics friends I don’t see that often, and I’m hoping it’ll be a good year with Brig Vol. 1 finished and ready to go. Even planning ways to dress up the table so it’s a bit more visually appealing..!

You’ll find me in Comixology Hall at table 136 (handy map below):

I’ll have prints from the campaign with me, and several of the artists who drew those prints (Chris Wildgoose and Will Kirkby) will be tabling so you can pop over to their tables afterwards and get them scribbled on if you fancy – Harriet will also be at the con so if you have a Kickstarter copy of Vol. 1 that you want signing, don’t hesitate to bring it along!

The Record

As a consequence of being very depressed and sad after last month’s news, and the business of Kickstarter fulfilment/playing gigs/etc, I’ve written a grand total of zero pages this month. And that’s okay, because I’ve got a lot on my plate and I need to clear some of it off before I can prioritise anything!

I did, however, get up early on a Sunday morning and spend several hours recording/mixing a little piece of music for an upcoming Kickstarter campaign being run by my good friend Alfie Gallagher. You’ll find out more about that soon, but I had a lot of fun doing it (and I think I absolutely nailed the brief!)

The Tunes

CM: Oct 2022 – playlist by Chris Mole | Spotify

Chris Mole · Playlist · 10 songs

We’re kicking things off this month with a Halloween-related track – the theme from Prince of Darkness, by horror maestro John Carpenter. I’m a big fan of his music (especially his “Lost Themes” albums) and he’s in fine form here. Taking a sudden left turn, we’re into post-black metal country with Aquilus – these guys traverse a lot of ground in one song, but never lose sight of how to craft a vast atmosphere in the process. Oceans of Slumber were a revelation when I saw them at Damnation Festival a few years ago, and they’ve gone full ‘Southern Gothic’ on their new album, capped off by this phenomenal cover of old-time classic ‘House of the Rising Sun’. Cammie Gilbert is an extremely good vocalist! Speaking of good vocalists, Devin Townsend is back with new music – I couldn’t get into his last release, the extremely experimental The Puzzle, but this is definitely more my speed, starting as it does almost chiptune/videogame-like before climbing into something bigger. Ayreon (from the mind of the mad hippie Arjen Lucassen) are one of my favourite bands, so I was delighted to see the announcement that one of their best albums is getting the full remix/remaster treatment – these songs are like a warm hug for me, and I can’t wait to hear them sounding even better and polished up. Brutus are a new discovery – I saw people on Twitter talking about their new album and decided to check it out. I’m very into it – it reminds me of bands like Ithaca, with huge sludgy riffs overlaid by a female vocalist with great range. Recommended! Borknagar are another old-time favourite, and I’ve had this track off their last album stuck in my head for the past few weeks – it’s an ode to nature and the northern landscapes from one of metal’s finest vocalists (ICS Vortex), and it’s extremely catchy to boot! New Taylor Swift was obviously going to be on this list because I’m very predictable – the new album hasn’t grabbed me as instantly as Folklore/Evermore did, but it feels like it’ll be a sneaky grower. I’ll report back next month..! Sometimes I like listening to choral music to calm myself down or while I’m writing, and Miserere Mei, Deus is truly beautiful – lush harmonies and an overwhelming sense of peace. It also flows thematically into the next track, which is what I would consider the modern pinnacle of music & worship – Florence + The Machine, live in New York, pouring her heart into an absolute disco banger. One day I’ll sell a kidney for Florence tickets, and then I’ll try not to have a spiritual/emotional breakdown at her in public and look like a complete weirdo..!

I’ll call it there for this time – next month will probably consist mostly of a Thought Bubble recap (once I’ve recovered from the convention hangover…)

Thanks for reading, and enjoy what remains of your Samhain!

All the best,

Chris

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September 2022: Cherish Every Moment

Hey folks,

I had a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to write about in this month’s newsletter (what with taking last month off for an actual holiday), but then a thing happened, and as a result I’m afraid this is going to be a rather sombre edition:

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This is (was) my beautiful Rottweiler rescue princess, Tia. Due to old age (she was pushing 12/13) and the rapid onset of kidney failure, we had to make the gut-wrenchingly difficult and awful decision to have her put to sleep yesterday.

Right now I’m still firmly in the denial stage – I keep expecting to see her in one of her spots (curled up on a bed in my studio or at the bottom of the stairs) or hear her pitter-pattering around the house. It doesn’t feel real that she’s not here any more.

It’s going to take a while before I can think about her without crying – the way she used to bounce up and down in excitement about going out for WALKIES, the Paddington hard stare she’d give us every time we ordered pizza to try and guilt us into giving her a slice, how she’d roll on her back and be the silliest, most lovable creature alive. The world is a darker, colder place for her absence.

If you have a pet of your own, please give them a big hug and cherish every moment you have with them. You never get enough.

The Usual

I’ll keep the rest of this short because I have an (emotional) dehydration headache – big news this month is that I had a story announced in a new anthology which is currently funding on Kickstarter. The anthology is called Sharp Wit & The Company of Women, it’s being run by the wonderful Extra Pages Press and the premise can be boiled down to: SWORD LADIES from LGBTQIA+ creators. My story is with the phenomenally talented Lauren Knight and coloured by the wonderful JP Jordan, and here’s some more about it:

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It’s 6 pages long and intended for anyone who likes a) tattooed guitar girls, b) heavy metal or c) misogynists getting their shit ruined. And if you don’t like any of those things, why are you even reading this newsletter??

You can back the campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/capnbiggles/sharp-wit-and-the-company-of-women – we’re currently just over 50% funded with 27 days remaining, so plenty of time to hit that target (and maybe some stretch goals)!

The Record

  • 6-page story for Sharp Wit & The Company of Women written
  • Print prep work for Brigantia Vol. 1
  • 1 page of lettering/skills hub for The Phoenix
  • 4 pages lettered

The anthology story came together remarkably quickly (the only editorial note I received on my first draft was a “Hell yeah” about one of the more dramatic pages) so most of my time has been taken up getting Brigantia Vol. 1 ready for printing. At time of writing, I’ve received the prints and bookplates from the wonderful Comic Printing UK and I believe the book itself is currently in the printing forge being created! It won’t be long now…

The Tunes

Predominantly heavy stuff on this month’s playlist – we’re kicking things off with Wormrot, a grind act from Singapore. 1 minutes and 15 seconds of fury, doesn’t fuck around. Nice. Next is Chat Pile – there are some truly haunting tracks on this release (in particular the last one, grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg) but this track turns a baleful eye on how broken our society is and pummels you with it. Heaviest song I’ve heard this year. Blackbraid is an atmospheric black metal project from an indigenous American musician – I always appreciate people bringing their culture into a genre and it’s even better when the music is this good. Couple of tracks from Japan next – BAND-MAID are a very recent discovery and truly the most insane, Japanese thing you can picture. Basically, they’re a group of cutesy girls who dress up like anime maids, but play heavy rock/metal with some excellent riffs? Similar vibes to Babymetal, except they play the instruments themselves. Wild. They’re followed by Asunojokei, who put out this very unique Japanese spin on atmospheric black metal which I’ve listened to a few times already. Tribulation, one of my favourite bands, are up next with a new track, and they’re followed by a complete 180 turn into classic crooning with Bobby Darin and Beyond the Sea. I binged season 3 of Marvellous Mrs. Maisel earlier in the month – it remains truly fantastic, and also got this track stuck in my head. Faith No More are next with Midlife Crisis – we watched a Youtube video where a classically-trained singer analyses rock/metal vocals and she didn’t know what to make of Mike Patton on this song, hence it’s inclusion here. Falkenbach are a band I’ve liked for a very long time – big, atmospheric synth-metal with similar vibes to Bathory and Summoning, this album soundtracked a very scenic drive I took over to the other side of the country a few weeks ago to buy a new guitar off a private seller. Lastly, we have Cluster, described by Matt Berry (of What We Do in the Shadows and Toast of London fame) as “early electronic nightmares” – I couldn’t not listen to it with a review like that, and I’m pleased to report that he was 100% accurate. It’s also the perfect soundtrack to a horror story I’ve been dabbling with so… thanks, Matt!

The Links

Just one link in here this month, an interesting longer read about visual effects and the way that the film & TV industry has completely and utterly fucked them: https://defector.com/inside-hollywoods-visual-effects-crisis/

The next time you find yourself tempted to complain/laugh about the CGI on a particular show or film – spare a thought for the poor bastard who’s had to spend hours upon hours working on it, only for a fickle director to ask them to scrap it completely and do something different in a quarter of the time with a sixth of the budget..!

That’s all from me this month – take care of yourselves, cuddle your pets, and have a good weekend.

All the best,

Chris

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July 2022: Hottest on Record

Hey folks – July is over, and with it one of the fastest (and hottest) months I remember in a while. Some nice bits of progress this month, scattered in with everything else – let’s get into it!

The Usual

After last month’s “no pages, only V I B E S” situation, I have managed some more productivity this month. Chief amongst those is managing to secure a (truly fantastic) colourist for the next three issues/second volume of BRIGANTIA, which means that the creative team is set, apart from a letterer:

Line art: Alaire Racicot
Colours: Rebecca Nalty
Editor: Claire Napier

We’ve got less than a handful of pages left to go for issue #3, and Hass has been keeping right on track with the lettering despite a brief bout of COVID, so I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get it off to CPUK in the first half of August and I’ll have plenty of time to check the proof before we do the full run. And then we can dive headfirst into issues #4-6! I’m very excited to see how this absolutely killer team interprets the script, which has already been polished and primped by the wonderful Claire.

The Record

  • 4 pages written (SPACE COWBOYS)
  • 17 pages outlined (BLACK RUBRIC II: BACK II BLACK)
  • 4 pages lettered
  • 2 pages of secret design work

Definitely a healthier-looking section this month! I finally found the energy and words to finish off the last issue of SPACE COWBOYS; now I just need to put issues #4 and #5 for that in front of Claire and start thinking about who could draw it. I’ve also made solid progress outlining the BLACK RUBRIC sequel – I wanted to make sure I could build on the first one and have something to say as well as continuing to take the piss out of the black metal scene, and I think I’ve come up with a hook that makes it worth writing. Aiming for something around 50-60 pages long, so double the length of the last one, but we’ll see how it goes!

The Tunes

This month’s list follows a bit of a bell curve; we’re starting off with some weird experimental ambient courtesy of SUGAI KEN, a Japanese artist I read a fascinating interview with this month. This isn’t my usual sort of thing but it’s a good soundscape to write to! Next up is JAMBINAI, who make instrumental post-rock with lots of interesting sounds and big crescendoes – definitely check out the rest of their material. They’re followed by the start of our climb into “heavy shit” territory, with a new track from one of my favourite bands, Tribulation – this yet again showcases their brand of “harsh vocals/bouncy as shit riffs” and I love it. They’re followed by Uneven Structure from France, with some huge, atmospheric prog-djent – I got into this album before I knew what djent was or cared about it, so I don’t really consider them under that label. Next up is VLTIMAS, a blackened death supergroup made up of members of Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy and Mayhem – my band played a support slot for them this month which was a fun time! They’re followed by Watain with a classic (and cheesy-named) slice of black metal – I don’t have a specific playlist for writing The Black Rubric, but I like to throw on the most OTT Satanic shit I can find to get myself in the mood. Cellar Darling have a bit of a silly name, but they’re formed of members of Eluveitie (one of few very good folk metal bands) and I found them interesting – there’s a lot going on here but it all works. Gilmore Trail are local to Sheffield and friends of mine – their album launch was this month which featured a live performance of this monolithic track. Most oppressively hot gig I’ve ever been to but a good experience nevertheless! At the bottom end of the bell curve, we’re closing out with a couple of electronica/pop songs – new material from The Midnight who are always a delight, with almost frustratingly catchy vocal hooks, and a new track from Metric which is equally earworm-y and will get stuck in your head.

The Links

Not a particularly long read this month, but I want to use it as a springboard to rant a little: https://www.indiewire.com/2022/07/stranger-things-subtitles-trolling-1234740521/

As somebody who’s half-deaf, I rely heavily on subtitles when I’m watching/playing things at home – to the extent that if a show or movie doesn’t have subtitles as an option, I will struggle to follow what’s going on and will probably just decide not to watch it. This line in the article particularly hit home for me:


“What I’ve noticed quite a lot online are people who don’t really understand the subtitles are for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. I’ve seen a lot of, ‘Why are the subtitles so overly descriptive? We don’t need these.’ And I know you don’t, but you weren’t the main audience for subtitles from the start.”


I honestly love this whole approach – subtitles shouldn’t just be a boring, passionless thing added to a show to ensure that you get the bare minimum of information required to understand it, they should absolutely try to bring you into the world of whatever you’re watching. Obviously there are certain occasions where you’ll just need to indicate what’s being said (quickfire dialogue scenes, etc) but when you have the opportunity to communicate the emotion or feeling that everything audible in the show (like music, foley and other sound effects, tone of voice) is working towards – do that, every damn time. Don’t deprive deaf or hard-of-hearing people of the same overall aesthetic enjoyment that you get from it.

There’s a crossover here with comics lettering, I feel – very basic comics lettering will absolutely communicate the information that you require to understand the comic, in that there will be words and you’ll grasp what the story is as a result of them. But if you can, why not fancy it up a little? Have the lettering work in tandem with the rest of the story to really communicate unease, or joy, or whatever else. If you’re not giving it some zazz, what’s the point?

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Anyway, that’s all from me. Have a great August – I’m finally going on holiday (for the first time in about 4 years) at the very end of next month, so I’ll be giving the monthly update a miss while I cram every slice of pizza and every cannoli that exists in Naples into my gaping maw. Molto bene!

All the best,
Chris

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June 2022: Bear Down For Midterms

Hey folks, it’s the end of another month (somehow!) Plus, it’s the midpoint of another goddamn year on this hellsphere – let’s try and stay positive, shall we?

The Usual

Definitely managed to do less writing this month – I don’t really have anything that needs finishing, since all the projects on my docket are either written or still in the planning stage. On top of that, the crushing financial pressures of the current cost-of-living crisis are really very good at dissuading me from finding the cash to kick off any more projects at this point – “sorry love, no money to pay the electricity bill this month because I used it to pay a colourist” is not a conversation I’m particularly keen on having..!

That said, I did manage to pull together an anthology pitch which I’m quite excited about – I’ve convinced a couple of frighteningly talented artists to team up with me on this one. Submissions open tomorrow so fingers crossed the editors like our idea! And I’ve also started work on a fun little something for The Phoenix – got some positive feedback on it already so that’s nice. Small steps..!

Moving away from writing progress, this month also saw my first trip up to Glasgow for Glasgow Comic Con. It was a delightful day full of great, friendly punters and post-con banter with pals – I especially want to shout out Fraser Campbell for his hospitality along with Tony Vanraes and Oliver Gerlach for their humour and company – Dangerous Nights crew represent!

Lastly, here’s me sprinkling some salt on a spicy riff with Ba’al last Friday:

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(photo by Savannah Bagshaw)

It’s been a while since I did two gigs in three days (Friday and Monday) but these were a blast, supporting a band from Seattle called Pound on their UK tour. If you like technical, extremely downtuned instrumental RIFFS made by two very nice blokes, check them out immediately!

The Record

*1 anthology pitch/synopsis
*First draft scripts for a secret Phoenix thing

This section should be a bit fuller next month (he says, optimistically…)

The Tunes

Straight in with the heavy shit this month, brace yourselves! Allegaeon are a band that I first encountered years ago, and they’ve gone from strength to strength since – their latest album of prog-tech-death absolutely slaps. Der Weg Einer Freiheit are a favourite band of Ba’al’s bassist, Richard – the album this is from makes his top-4 all-time list, so I decided to give it a spin. Sprawling atmos black metal is definitely my shit, and this provides it in spades. Anaal Nathrakh are my go-to when I need a short, sharp shock – but despite the unrelenting vitriolic/nihilistic violence of their sound, their recent albums occasionally feel like they’re reaching for a brighter tomorrow. There’s a sense of bloody-minded, stubborn hope mixed in with the despair, as the title of this track (“Create Art, Though The World May Perish“) suggests. Danimal Cannon is a guitarist/chiptune/electronica artist of depressing skill, and I found out this month that he’s friends with friend of mine from Sheffield – it’s a small world! I knew nothing about Celestial City Symphony Orchestra before I heard this song – apparently it’s another one-man project with various other musicians collaborating, and it sounds huge. Next are a couple of perennial faves – this is the best Faith No More album for my money (sorry, Angel Dust fans) and fully shows off Mike Patton’s versatility. It’s followed by some lush acoustic folk from Agalloch – I did a listen through their entire discography this month which was a delight, and this track remains one of my faves. Changing gears dramatically, here are Pound – their song titles are impossible to write or say, but who needs a catchy title when you have riffs this girthy and titanic? New Spiritbox was a delight this month – only one album in and they’ve become a firm favourite band of mine, so I’m excited to hear more of what they have coming. And lastly, I make no apologies for liking Oasis – growing up in the vicinity of Manchester means it was illegal not to like (or at least tolerate) them, and I remain steadfast in my belief that they have some excellent songs. This is one of them (and a choral cover of it was used to devastating effect in the final episode of Lucifer – definitely got a few tears out of me!)

The Links

Just the one link this month; I found this article (about Hong Kong and the continuing shitshow that is China trying to take full control of the city) to be an interesting read: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/06/hong-kong-tiananmen-square-china-censorship/661342/

I also want to take this section to shout out another newsletter that you should definitely be subscribed to: Letters From Limbo, written by the excellent Ritesh Babu: https://buttondown.email/riteshwriter

His latest was a deep dive into Indian cinema inspired by the recent release of the movie RRR, which I watched this month – it’s a wild film, and his analysis really helped me to contextualise it given my lack of knowledge around Indian politics/history/mythology. Highly recommended if you like an occasional very interesting read!

And that’s all from me for this month! Thanks for reading and take care of yourselves.

All the best,

Chris

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May 2022: Moloch the Terrible

Hey folks,

I’ve spent the last week or so positively vibrating with rage at the wider world, and it’s a curious contrast to things actually going pretty well on a personal level – the joy of low-grade anxiety! Either way, I’ll try to keep myself fairly even-keeled for this month’s newsletter…

The Usual

It’s been a quietly productive month, I think – I finally sat down and powered through the last of the bonus content pages for Brigantia Vol. 1, so the only thing left to do is plug in issue #3 once Harriet’s finished work on it, do some final proofreading and checking and then it should be good to go to print. There are only about 14 pages left and she’s keeping me updated on progress – so we’re definitely getting there, as long and stressful as the road has been. I’d been hoping for a little bit of a break from Brigantia before rolling into the second half of the story (with Alaire) later this year/into 2023 but that’s looking unlikely at this point – so I guess I’ll just stay on the train until we finally finish issue #6 and then have a breather! On that topic, here’s a coloured (but not lettered) teaser page from issue #3 I haven’t shared elsewhere:

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In other project news, we sadly got our first rejection for the HOCKEYTOWN pitch – it was understandable (it’s a fairly niche sport and setting, and while one editor was enthusiastically on board with the hockey theme, others weren’t so keen) but definitely knocked me back for a weekend – coupled as it was with one of my bands losing out at a competitive show we played to try and win a slot at a massive UK festival called Bloodstock. Still, I’m choosing to take the positives from both experiences (we have some good feedback and can shop the pitch around some more, plus I’ve established a good professional contact with the editor; I got to play on the big main stage of my city’s most famous metal club) so I can get up and back at it! I’ve almost finished scripting SPACE COWBOYS, with just a few pages left of issue #5 to get through, so might be time to build that up into a solid pitch for this particular editor…

The Record

  • 3 pages scripted (SPACE COWBOYS)
  • 4 pages lettered (THE PHOENIX)
  • Assorted other stuff (see above!)

While I was lettering the other day, I decided to sit down and listen back to the BLACK RUBRIC tracks I wrote/recorded for that comic. And you know what? I’m still genuinely very happy with them, there are some beefy riffs in there and their overall feel is a great match for the comic. I’d better push the graphic novella-length sequel to that comic up my to-do list…

The Tunes

Not a huge amount of metal on the list this month – I’m branching out! First up is a new track from Karl Sanders (the guitarist of Egyptian-themed tech death metal band Nile, a huge favourite of mine) – his solo stuff is dark ambient/atmospheric which maintains the Egyptian mythology/history theme, and I love it. Following that is another track from the new Florence + The Machine album, which may already be my album of the year – just rammed full of great tracks and I will not shut up about it! Wet Leg are apparently in the zeitgeist at the moment – I don’t know why, but this song popped up on Spotify and I enjoyed it enough to include it. The slightly mumbly vocals aren’t usually my thing, but they work here! I’m always up for new Rotting Christ, and this track is definitely a different feel to their usual stuff – more anthemic and with more of a focus on the clean vocals. I guess this month is a “solo artists” month, because here’s Kirk Hammett of Metallica with his new solo album – and again, it’s pretty different to his day job, with a lovely Ennio Morricone vibe that matches the cowboy movie title. Couple of synthwave/chiptune-type tracks up next – Dita Redrum, which caught my eye because I love the SNES isometric RPG game Shadowrun (and this evokes that!) and then chiptune hip-hop from the superlative Supercommuter, one of my favourite acts. Their first two albums are laden with bangers and the third is also very good! Taking a bit of a turn, we have the metal corner of this month’s playlist: first is Nechochwen, a folk/atmospheric black metal project made by an indigenous American musician and drawing on his cultural heritage. I love this kind of stuff! Next is Desolate Shrine, who are just filthy, heavy death metal with a sludgy, apocalyptic edge. And finally, to close things out: an obligatory Eurovision track, courtesy of France’s Alvan & Ahez. I didn’t manage to watch the event this year (I was playing a ceilidh for a friend’s birthday) but caught this one on the highlights and enjoyed it!

Movie Talk

I’m going to change up the format here, and rather than give you a link, I want to expound a little bit about a movie I watched this month!

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I picked up a blu-ray of Metropolis (1927), the German silent movie which is responsible for a lot of the science fiction we know and love today – the full movie was lost soon after it was shown, and it’s only in recent years that archivists discovered some reels of the full thing and have been able to restore it to (almost) it’s original form. I’ve never actually seen it before, and I’m glad I waited for the “full” version, because I was struck by how well a movie from 95 years ago worked. We’re immediately thrust into a strange world that nevertheless looks very familiar – a huge city, of impossible proportions, maintained by an army of nondescript workers who trudge down long corridors to their cramped, brutalist housing blocks beneath the earth. Above them are the wealthy, living in gorgeous art deco luxury. This movie is very, very clear on it’s politics, at least to begin with, and that message has only continued to be relevant in today’s brutally inequal world. By the point that Freder (the son of the city’s overlord, Joh Fredersen) has fantastic visions of the workers being marched into the gaping maw of the terrible machine demon Moloch, I was enthusiastically on board.

As the movie unfolds, we meet Maria (played incredibly by Brigitte Helm) who is inciting the workers to rebellion – interpreting the story of the Tower of Babel as a conflict between the wealthy intellectuals who conceived the tower and the workers tasked with building it. Maria is truly a fascinating role – Helm is tasked with being a religious symbol of inspiration and purity for the workers, a love interest for Freder and, in stunning fashion, the human face of a Machine Man crafted by the inventor Rotwang. In the last one, she’s an evil creature of wickedness, sin and temptation, inciting the wealthy to bloodshed over her and manipulating the workers into self-destruction. Helm is given the most varied role that I’ve seen in a long time, and she manages it with aplomb.

On top of the stunning (even by modern standards!) set design and staging, there are some huge set pieces in the movie, requiring hundreds of actors – it has the feel of a true cinematic epic. I’d highly recommend it!

Anyway, that’s all for this month – we have a long bank holiday coming up in the UK courtesy of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. I will (obviously) not be celebrating it, because I have absolutely no interest in flag-waving nationalism, but I intend to make the most of my time off work with a trip up to Scotland for Glasgow Comic Con! If you’re heading along, I’ll be on table H04 – come and say hello!

All the best,
Chris

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April 2022: Second Winter

Hey folks,

Apart from a brief burst of sunny weather a couple of weeks ago, we seem to have been stuck in winter’s grip all through April and I’m beginning to get entirely sick of it – give me sunshine and warm temperatures! I want to wear shorts, feel self-conscious about my knees and complain about the heat (because I am British, after all..!)

The Usual

It’s been a quietly productive month on the scriptwriting front – the first draft of the first chapter of CYBERCLIMBERS (which I’m working on with the delightful Rosie Packwood) is written and met with her approval, so hopefully our editors will like it too. We also got a sneaky peek at the anthology our first collaboration is appearing in, and I can say with certainty that we’re in fantastic company – some excellent artwork in there!

The next thing on my list is to finish polishing up the scripts for Brigantia #4-#6 so Alaire can start on those later in the year. Progress is slow but steady on issue #3 – at this point I’m absolutely wracked with guilt about the wait our KS backers have endured on an almost daily basis, even though it’s largely out of my hands… I’m doing my best not to let it sour my feelings towards getting the second half of the story done!

I should also probably take the plunge and try to find an artist for the sci-fi story, but given the low ebb my self-confidence is at for this stuff, it’s difficult to think about. The Kieron Gillen joke about writers being parasites was obviously meant in good humour, but I’ve definitely internalised it – I rarely feel like artists would be excited to work with me, and it makes it very hard to try and pitch stories to people. I need to suck it up and get over myself, basically!! 😤

The Record

-11 pages written (for CYBERCLIMBERS)
-12 pages lettered (for The Phoenix)

Please enjoy this message I sent to Rosie about CYBERCLIMBERS, which encapsulates just how on the nose we intend to be:

What’s the point of a fun cyberpunk manga story about climbing if you can’t also make it about class warfare, huh??

The Tunes

It’s a big ol’ mishmash of new and old this month – some of my perennial classics that have come back into rotation for various reasons along with some new stuff. Let’s crack in:

First up is a band that I struggle to categorise, Wolfhand – essentially “Wild West doom”? This album is fantastic though, definitely worth a listen if you like BIG ATMOSPHERES. Next up is a cut from the new Carpenter Brut album, which oozes a different (more synthetic) kind of atmosphere and has some great collab appearances – like Norwegian post-BM titans Ulver on this track. After that we’re going more lo-fi with Japanese riot grrl punk from Otoboke Beaver – my punk-loving friend Helen recommended this band to me and I’m very glad she did! After that we have band who are impossible to do a Google search for, ΛΔΛΜ – this was a Spotify discovery and it’s great, but I can’t find anything else out about them. Nice, chilled track though! That leads us into a couple of oldies – Lower Norfair by my favourite videogame metal covers band Metroid Metal, which was part of my playlist for a 10K I ran last weekend (and therefore partly responsible for me managing an impressive 50:33 personal best!), followed by Amon Amarth. I came out of the Northman with this song blasting in my head so I had to include it! A trio of new tracks from old faves up next – the new Ghost album isn’t as good as their previous release for me, but it has some catchy ones, and the chorus of this track has been running around my head recently. Nick (my fellow guitarist in Ba’al) was the one who mentioned that the new Korn album is actually surprisingly enjoyable, so I gave it a go, and… he’s right, it’s decent (and nowhere near as embarrassingly painful as that new Limp Bizkit album…) I’m a fairly casual Meshuggah fan, in that I like some of their stuff but don’t think they’re messianic beings like some people seem to, but I enjoyed this track off their newest release. I have no intention of trying to understand how complex the riffs are – I’ll just nod along and enjoy the vibe! Lastly, some atmospheric black metal from Sylvaine to close us out – an easy way to make me like your band is to name a song Mono no Aware, after the Japanese concept of impermanence and transience of life. It helps that they also know how to craft big atmospheres!

The Links

Just the one link for you this month, but I want to talk about it a little bit. Have a read: https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-northman-explained-valhalla-valkyries-viking-lore

Some mild spoilers for The Northman abound below (although tbh, if you’ve read Hamlet you’ll know the story already..!)

I really enjoyed The Northman when I went to see it earlier this month – I’m a big fan of Robert Eggers’ previous work (The Witch and The Lighthouse are both fantastic movies) and while this movie is less overtly weird, it’s got plenty of visual stylishness and a muscular, powerful feeling that suits the “roaring rampage of revenge” narrative. The article above was an interesting read for me because of the way that Eggers, Sjón and their collaborators like Neil Price approached the idea of authenticity – there are some things that we can draw from the historical and archaeological record (Viking longships, brooches, etc) and some things that we can really only guess at (the thoughts and feelings of a Viking living in a world suffused with divinity and magic). What’s important is to take what we do know and weave it together with educated guesswork to serve the story you’re trying to tell – like the Tree of Kings in the movie, which is drawn from a real tapestry. The meaning of the tapestry is unknown, but as a symbol of fate it’s a throughline for the whole story.

I’ve also seen some commentary around how the white supremacists love The Northman (unsurprising, given the number of brainless right-wing morons who latch onto Viking runes and imagery), and criticism of Eggers for not doing more to dissuade them. My starting point for that debate is: neo-Nazis latched onto My Little Pony, seemingly the most innocent cartoon anyone could possibly make. They desperately try to claim any kind of cultural property and poison it for others. Eggers could certainly have tried to cast more diversely (it’s a myth that the Viking world was entirely white, after all) but I’ve no doubt that even if he had, the Nazis would have found a way to lay claim to it regardless – they spent most of the 20th century perverting ancient symbols which had existed for a thousand years before modern fascism cropped up. Maybe we should just… stop letting them do that?

That aside, anyone who watches the movie and thinks “hell yeah, so badass” is drastically missing the point – it’s a tragedy wherein the protagonist loses his entire family to murderous treachery, spends his life miserable and thirsting for revenge, is poised to start a new life then throws that away for the sake of vengeance. It’s not supposed to be aspirational!

That’s all for this month- take care, everyone!

All the best,
Chris