(book) Darker Masques Anthology

I found this anthology when I was an avid reader of anything Graham Masterson wrote, being one of my favorite horror authors. So, I got to read this one, and check out his short story, also Dan Simmons being my favorite I wanted to read his share of this anthology, together with Ray Bradbury and couple of other names that I know and a bunch of horror authors didn’t have a honor to read yet. But, this 500 plus pages monster is not what I thought it would be. Besides three above mentioned authors rest of the stories are not on the level. On the contrary, most are under. As is with any anthology, some stories are better, some not, but this one lacks great stories. Based mostly in body horror, sexual related horror stories and also psychological serial killers, this anthology is for those who still do not know what they want with their horror. Give me Lovecraft related horror stories and novels every day. This one is to avoid. Better spend time reading something better. I will soon tell you what if you read this webzine.

2/5

(review) Skadavers – ‘That’s Life Idiot’

We recently featured The Scuba Kids on the pages of this webzine. Well, Skadavers is a solo project by Blake Runyon of The Scuba Kids. This one featured six songs of ska punk rock with good dose of melodic punk roots and emotional punk. There are also some reggae parts and brass instruments that only add to the overall feeling that should be happy, but it somehow isn’t. There is sadness and melancholy featured and inner struggle to cope and survive in daily life, also fight with you inner demons, at least that is how I heard this e.p. But, there are also some state of the world political lyrical themes if you read between the lines in some songs. ‘Make A Killing’ has that psycho eerie melody on verse and raw punk part making it great. Also, my personal favorites on this one are ‘This Is Hell’ and ‘Where Did All The Voices Go?’. Good ska punk rock.

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