If there's one thing they do well in Quebec it's black metal. Whenever someone says 'you should check this out, it's from Quebec,' I'm always, always interested. Wendigo is one band which was suggested to me, just yesterday as it happens, and I've been really enjoying it. The video I'm sharing below features a series… Continue reading Sound Of The Day : Wendigo
I've been meaning to make a post about the work of Polish artist and graphic designer Dawid Planeta for ages, but, funnily (?) enough, my depression has prevented me from doing so. My mood is one of the reasons why this blog was cold and quiet for so damn long - I didn't have the… Continue reading Depression As Gigantic Beasts : The Art Of Dawid Planeta
I have Swedish artist Tomarum AKA Christine Linde to thank for today's Sound Of The Day, as she tagged the musician Helga in a recent post on Instagram. I couldn't resist tapping into Google and going down the dark path to find Helga's Bandcamp page, as I had a feeling I would discover something really… Continue reading Sound Of The Day : Helga
I've long been obsessed with the terrifying Algonquian folkloric creature the Wendigo. Also spelled Wìdjigò, Windigo or Wetiko, Wendigo is said to mean 'the evil spirit that devours mankind.' This flesh-eating spirit of the north features in dozens of works of fine literature, though possibly the most chilling is its appearance in Stephen King's book… Continue reading Art Of The Wendigo
Accidentally discovering a new band, and becoming so obsessed with the song you discovered them through that even when you're not listening to it, it still manages to give you goosebumps, is one the greatest things there is in life. My latest accidental find (thank you YouTube) was Belgium trio Brutus, whose blend of post-rock,… Continue reading Sound Of The Day : Brutus
I have a daughter. She's nearly nine months. When she decides she wants a nap, be that at 2pm or 2am (she's not a predictable baby) I take the opportunity to make a video from one of my poems. Here are four I've made over the past four days. I'm new to this folks, so… Continue reading Four Darkly Inclined Poetry Videos
If you’re partial to some Scandinavian folk horror (and let's be honest, if you're here it's more than likely that you are) you may enjoy UTBURD, a short story I've written (that started life as a poem) which has been illustrated by Alessia Brusco, an Italian artist based in Sweden. It’s a tale about a… Continue reading UTBURD – An Illustrated Short Story
I was sure that I wasn't going to come back here. That Wyrd Words & Effigies was a closed chapter in my life. Now, I'm usually alright at moving past stuff and taking myself to lush pastures of new projects...but then something unexpected happened. Thanks to Instagram, I fell headfirst into the world of illustrator… Continue reading Justell Vonk : The Artist Who Brought Wyrd Words & Effigies Back From The Dead
I am forever being confronted by those 100 AWESOME THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE!!!! lists. But rarely, if ever, do they contain something that I would actually want to do before I stagger from this mortal coil. I would not, for example, like to drive a Porsche stupidly fast around a race track. Nor… Continue reading 50 Macabre & Unusual Things To Do Before You Die : Part I
The few days after October are never easy. It seems that every year I sit and fret for hours about all the things I wish I'd done...all the leaves I should have collected and made into garlands, all the pies I should have baked with pumpkin flesh, all the conkers I should have brought in… Continue reading Dark Art & Creative Writing To Help You Bid Farewell To October
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 