CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED.

How do you like that for a band name?  Gets your attention doesn't it.

CWOTD is a new metal supergroup of sorts.  If you're not a metal fan you may not recognize the names but for those into the scene the four dudes that are CWOTD are just that, a supergroup.

My introduction to the band came around because I am a huge Howard Stern fan.  The drummer of CWOTD is Richard Christy.  Again, if you not a Stern fan that probably means nothing to you but to us Stern devotees Christy is a household name.  His drumming skills had been used on the Stern show and his backround of touring the world with ICED EARTH has been fodder for many segments of the show not to mention the time that Christy played drums to Metallica songs on some dudes naked ass so the guy could win tickets to the bands concert.

CWOTD is actually Christy's brain child.  He brought on board Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals, Steve DiGiorgio on Bass and Jason Suecof on guitar.

Ripper is is own story.  He is actually from my home town, not that any of you should care, I just think it's cool.  Any way, Ripper is the guy who was singing in a Judas Priest cover band called BRITISH STEEL when Priest booted lead singer Rob Halford they hired Owens to take his place and he was with the band till Halford and the boys reunited in 2003.  His story was actually the unofficial catalyst for the hit film ROCK STAR.

I still remember driving past Sadie Renee's (a bar) here in town and seeing Rippers name on the marque.  He's doing Northern Ohio proud.

DiGiorgio is quite simply one of the best technical bassists playing today.  His talent and style are legendary .

Suecof is actually better known for his work behind the scenes producing albums for bands like TRIVIUM and ALL THAT REMAINS.

So, now we know everyone lets talk about their album. 

Released earlier this year, Feb. 2nd to be exact, their self titled debut is nothing short of extraordinary.  I've been a metal fan since my teenage years, you know the drill, KISS, PRIEST, SABBATH, SCORPIONS, UFO, etc.  Once a metal fan always a metal fan and now I find myself still listening to all the above but also DISTURBED, MUSHROOMHEAD, ALL THAT REMAINS and now CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED.

An interesting mix of hard core death metal and old school heavy metal this album actually ends up serving as a bridge between the two distinct sub genres.  With Christy's unrelenting drum track and Owens old school vocal stylings it gives CWOTD their own distinct sound that causes them to stand out in an area where a lot of the bands end up sounding very much alike.

It also brings us older metal fans into the fold.  I'm finding this album is one that my 15 year old daughter and I can enjoy equally.  It's got the hard edge that today's young metal fans crave and the melodic vocals that us old schoolers still seek.  Owen's voice actually reminds me very much of DIO.  I think he sounds just like him and that's a good thing.

If I have any complaint about CWOTD's debut it's that it just isn't long enough.  With a run time of just over 30 minutes it seems like it's over as quick as it starts but it is 30 plus minutes of ear numbing greatness.  My favorite track is "From the Abyss".  It's a powerful, driving track with great vocals and lyics.  I'm thinking we'll be hearing on the radio soon.  Their current "single" is "GHOST TOWN"  which has begun getting airplay and they have produced a video.  CLICK HERE to check that out.

The album has 9 tracks in all and they are all worthy of airplay and are certainly an exceptional foundation for a band I'm hoping will be around for a long time to come.

Trust me.  If you like Metal, go buy this album right now.  Support these guys cause I think there is greatness going on and more must be heard.

CLICK HERE to head on over to the bands MY SPACE page.

CLICK HERE for Richard Christy's home page

CLICK HERE to check out the METAL BLADE website where you can find some of the best metal around.

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Just got done reading what may be the near perfect winter time horror tale.  It's titled SNOW and it's written by Ronald Malfi.  Can't lie to you, until I got this title in the mail I had never heard of Ronald Malfi  but I sure am pleased to know about him now.

SNOW is great.  Just great.  A genuine page turner that grabs you from the very first word and doesn't stop cranking until the very last.  The story is actually, at least for this reader, an original story idea.  I mean c'mon how do you make snow scary.  Sure, you can have people trapped under it, stuck in it, buried by it but attacked by it?  Seriously, attacked by it, like it hunts you down and kills you.  Snow as a predator!  I love it.

SPOILERS AHEAD BUT I PROMISE NOT GIVE TO MUCH AWAY!!

Our story opens as Todd Curry, a divorced father of one, is attempting to get to his son for the Christmas holiday.  He's stuck in Chicago at the airport when a major snow event moves into the area.  Determined to not let his son down and miss Christmas morning he make the descison to rent a car and make the journey that way.  Before he leaves he takes up with a couple of other traelers and they all decide to make the trip together. 

The four of them set off, against the advice of everyone at the airport, and are soon alone on the snow covered roads.  They happen upon a man wandering around.  He is disoriented and trying to find his daughter.  He says that the car died, he got out to try and fix it and when he got back in the car his daughter was gone.  Concerned the travelers take the man in and attempt to help him find his kid.  They are going to try and get to the next town to alert police when they come upon the mans car which appears have been there for a very long time.  Things don't seem right and through a series of events our travelers find themselves in the nearby town that appears to be deserted.

Things really kick off from here and the story amps up to a full fledged survival tale as Todd and company slowly uncover what is going on and attempt to stay alive.

What I really loved about this book was its originality. In this day and age of rehash and remake for someone to have an original thought should be celebrated.  SNOW is the perfect mix of outstanding character development, high octane action and bone munching gore.  I literally could not wait to get to the next page, the next chapter to find out how Malfi was going to proceed.  I was actually disappointed that this story had to end.

I could go on about this book for hours but to do so would be to ruin your enjoyment of the story.  I'll just leave it at go pick this one up as soon as possible and if possible wait till a nice cold night when the snow is lightly falling, turn off  everything but your reading light and get ready for one of your best reads in a while.

SNOW is available now.  All the on line retailer have it.  You can CLICK HERE to head on over to AMAZON.

CLICK HERE to head over to Malfi's official site.  Once you read this you're going to be a fan and want to pick up his other works.  I sure know I did.

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I've got to give it to SHOUT FACTORY.  These folks know how to put out a DVD.  A perfect example is the recent release of KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS.  Those of us old to enough to remember the film remember it as a creepy crawly shriek fest that had us itching and scratching ourselves as we were certain that a black widow had climbed up on us as we were watching.

Watching it now we of course recognize it for what it is, an early precursor to films like ARACHNOPHOBIA and EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS who did the similar story line only with multi-million dollar effects.  It follows the formula that films of that era invented.  All the money shots were saved for the end of the film.  The first two thirds are all innuendo and character development with all the creature action taking place in the last 25 minutes or so.  I guess the easiest way to describe it is that it's like watching a TV movie.

The 70's of course had more then its fair share of "nature run amok" films and KINGDOM fits right in there.  It is actually a very enjoyable view and William Shatner is at his best as RACK HANSEN a rural veterinarian who gets called to a farmers ranch when the farmers prize calf gets mysteriously sick.  After consulting with a entomologist it is determined that the calf died from a huge dose of spider venom.  After a series of events a giant "spider dome" is discovered in the field of the farm where the calf died.  Literally thousands of tarantula's are creeping and crawling around and they seem to have developed a taste for blood.

A plan is concocted to spray a pesticide from an airplane to kill the creepy crawlers but of course the spiders attack the plane causing it to crash.  After that it is all out spider mayhem as our eight legged friends turn on us and start hunting our heros down.

I won't give away the ending as if you haven't seen it, it's a classic and if you have, you know you want to see it again.

Make no mistakes, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is not a great film abut it is one fun film and SHOUT FACTORY'S release is top notch.  The film looks great and there are a bunch of really nice special features.  I enjoyed the new interview with Shatner and the behind the scenes footage of which there was quite a bit and it was entertaining to watch.

A nice commentary track with the director, producer, the spider wrangler and the cinematographer.

I would highly recommend picking this one up.  Just remember you're watching a film that is over 30 years old.  They actually used live spiders and there is no way that CGI can beat that.

KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is available now from SHOUT FACTORY.  You can CLICK HERE to head on over to their website and pick it up.

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As I was watching 2012 I was thinking how director Roland Emmerich has really become the modern day Irwin Allen.  To you younger readers it should be noted that back in the day (70's) Irwin Allen was the master of disaster.  His films THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and THE TOWERING INFERNO were the disaster masterpieces of their time and actually pretty much set the standard for disaster/thriller pics. 

Someone in the special features of 2012 actually makes the same comparison and hopefully it makes Emmerich proud to be compared to the legendary film maker.  And it is a comparison that he has certainly worked hard to deserve.

Between his films INDEPENDENCE DAY, GODZILLA, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW and now 2012 he has pretty much destroyed everything. 

He takes the destruction world wide with 2012 which ties the end of the world with the end of the Mayan calendar and a huge solar flare that basically boils the core of the earth and causes the earths crust to destabilize.

As anticipated this event lends itself to scenes of complete and total destruction the likes of which have never been seen.  Make no beans about it, the star of this film is the magnificent special effects.  They are breath-taking and for a disaster film lover like myself they are the ultimate fix.

As kind of the case with most of Emmerich's works he loves to layer multiple story lines with a slew of characters and 2012 is no different.  The main focus in this film is John Cusack who plays Jackson Curtis a struggling author who works part time as a limo driver.  He is recently separated from his wife played by Amanda Peet who has a new man in her life.  Jackson is around quite a bit as he wants to remain a part of his kids lives and as the film opens he is picking up the kids to go out on a weekend camping trip.  Of course while on the trip that is when all hell breaks loose.  The kind of complicated storyline about why the world is ending plays out quickly and you have to pay attention to make any sense out of it but once all that is past the destruction begins and it is way over the top fun.  We get massive earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, explosions, just about anything you can think of.

The extended scene where Curtis and his family escape the city, first by car and then by plane is pretty much the most intense and breath taking disaster scene ever put to film.  While completely over the top and implausible it is just way to much fun to miss.

A lot of big money stars make small appearances.  We get Woody Harrelson as the kooky mountain man / pirate radio host who knows the truth, Danny Glover as The President, Oliver Platt as the asshole Washing ton bureaucrat and the stupidly attractive Thandie Newton as the Presidents daughter.  Lots of other small cameos so keep your eyes open.

Naturally all of these characters lives all end up converging in the end and of course even though the world is changed forever ultimately the sun still rises and life will go on.

After the dramatic and impressive disaster scenes the last third of the movie seemed a little sluggish to me and all though attempts are made to ratchet up the action at the end it all just kind of pales in comparison to the earlier action.  I guess that a risk you run in these type of films.

Overall though I completely enjoyed my time spent in 2012 and would highly recommend you give this one your time. 

Not a ton of special features but the selection that they do have is entertaining.  I didn't have time to listen to the commentary but it is on my to do list and I think I will enjoy it as I liked the movie so much.  There is an alternate ending that I enjoyed seeing and have to agree with the choice they made.  Also some deleted scenes and a retrospective on Roland Emmerich round out the selections.  I would have like to had seen a making of feature but that was not to be.  As seems to annoyingly be the case you have to get the Blu-ray collectors edition if you want the extra goodies.  Grrrrr.....

2012 will be available Tuesday March 2nd in standard DVD, single disc Blu-ray and 2 disc Collectors Edition.

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Brian Keene's last few novels have steered him away from what had been his bread and butter tale.  He was king of the zombies but his last few have ventured into more daring waters and as always, he has succeeded.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is his "THE MIST" story.  He actually references KINGS tale in his own.  It also kind of mirrors KING'S latest UNDER THE DOME as these three tales all tell a similar story of average folks caught up in extraordinary circumstances and how some rise to the occasion and other sink to the depths of horrible depravity.

KEENE has always had and continues to have an uncanny ability to draw very believable and very deep characters very quickly.  Within the first few pages we meet most of the principals involved in the tale and we actually give a shit about what happens to them.  Some authors tell whole stories without me giving two shits about what happens to those in their tale, Keene manages to hook me immediately and paces the action just enough that I can't put the story down till I know their outcome.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is told journal style.  It is basically a memoir that our main character is leaving behind as he and those with him venture out to try and escape the unthinkable happenings that have been occurring.  He is leaving it behind as testament to their plight and also as a road map for any other survivors that might happen upon it.

Robbie is our lead character.  He's a pizza delivery driver and he lives with his girlfriend Christy in Walden, Virgina a nice little town until the day that they wake up and find the town surrounded by darkness.  Like nighttime, yet not.  Nothing works, the electric is out, the cable is out, cell phones don't work.  Confusion is the first order of the day as the town wakes up and realizes that while morning, it is still night time out.  The fact that none of utilities work and no one outside of the town can be reached quickly adds to the hysteria and shortly all hell is breaking loose.  We meet Robbie's loose circle of friends comprised mainly of those that live around him in his apartment building and the story of the DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN quickly unfolds.

It is found out that just beyond the town limits the darkness is much thicker and much deadlier.  There is something in that darkness but no one can tell what it is but it's not good.  Anyone who ventures past the town lines are swallowed up and never seen again although their screams are heard.  It's actually damn creepy.

The bulk of the story revolves around Robbie and his friends attempting to find out what the hell this darkness is and how to get away from it.  It appears that a homeless bum named DEZ holds the only answers and no one is listening to him cause he's the town nut ball.

Madness ensues, people die and the darkness remains.  As always seems to be the case in these types of stories, folks take sides and the wacko's always seem to find one another and they always make it hard on the ones trying to find a real solution.  Nothing different this time around.

While the tale my be a bit rehashed nothing is ever quite the same when it's in the hands of Keene and he certainly adds his "flair" to the proceedings with his non stop action and ability to take even the most over used cliche and make it all his own.  While the story may seem twice told you have not yet heard it till you've heard Keene tell it.

DARKNESS is a solid, tight, well written creep fest that further solidifies Keene's ranking as one of the major forces in horror literature.  If you're not reading Keene than you are a damn fool.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is available now anyplace you find good horror.

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