My first encounter with the Icelandic, child eating troll Gryla was in 2010 when I wrote a poem about her. The second encounter was a year later, on a street in Akureyri, a city in northern Iceland. She was there with her husband Leppaludi. While most people think she's quite the hideous monster, I found… Continue reading Art Of Gryla
Have you heard about Kin Fables? No? Please allow yourself to be introduced through this interview I did back in 2013 with the creators. CLANN brings together all the music from the beautiful and expansive world magicked up by the McKinnon brothers. There's also a more up to date interview here from Beautiful Bizarre. The… Continue reading Sound Of The Day : CLANN
Since I was small, I've been fascinated with the idea of a demonic black hound, the size of a yearling calf with eyes the colour of hell fire, haunting the dark, lonely moors and lanes of England. Also, the fact it's a legend most commonly associated with my home county of Yorkshire is something that… Continue reading Art Of The Barghest
THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS POST. All day I've been seeing posts complaining about The Bells AKA episode 5 of series 8 of Game Of Thrones, be it because folk think the Dragon Queen has gone mad or because they think the episodes are getting shittier as we draw ever closer to the end. I've… Continue reading Sound Of The Day : Game Of Thrones – The Bells
The other day when I was talking on Facebook about my obsession with the Wendigo, a friend from Baffin Island mentioned to me the Inuit myth of Qalupalik. (Since I learned how to pronounce Qalupalik I haven't been able to stop saying it to myself! It's such a wonderful word to say aloud.) The Qalupalik… Continue reading Art Of The Qalupalik
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
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 