Les Masques De La Mort


The latest grouping of burial skulls have been recovered and documented, this time from an unmarked tomb located deep inside a series of caves west of the city of Palmiste on the northern island of Ile De La Tortue in Haiti.



Three skulls, adorned with traditional Haitian Vodou markings were discovered during an expedition into a remote jungle west of the city of Palmiste, Haiti. Upon discovering a series of caves, archaeologists discovered that two of the cave passages had been used for religious ceremony and burial. Along with the recovered skull specimens, various animal bones and religious artifacts were also scattered throughout the cave.


Crane Numero Un 



Skull with traditional Haitian Vodou markings. Chalk pigmented white paint embellishment to the face, as well as a cross adorned onto the forehead. Analysis results confirm the cross was NOT a pigmented paint, but was human blood.



Crane Numero Deux



Deformed skull, wrapped in loincloth and bound with jute roping. Right ocular socket appears to be malformed. Loincloth and multiple strands of jute roping have been tied around the skull, as if to cover or hide the deformity.



Crane Numero Trois



This skull specimen is unlike any documented in this region. A separate "skull mask" has been attached to a severely malformed skull in what appears to be a post-mortem edification.

This "skull mask" fragment, although decayed in its present state, has been attached, using a series of crude iron nails and jute roping, to a badly deformed and underdeveloped skull. This underdeveloped skull has massive deformity and no recognizable features in its facial region. Upon genetic testing of the separate fragments, test results showed that both shared nearly identical DNA strands, confirming that these fragments had come from siblings.



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Another set of cast foam skulls are done! I used the same process as The Peruvian Stigmas and The Six Skulls of Osteopetrosis, in that they were cast using Great Stuff expanding foam and a hollow plastic skull mold. Visit my "Six Skulls" page for a full how-to to see how I cast all of these skulls.

On this particular set, I wanted to push it a bit further and created the third skull above. When pulling the foam skulls from the molds, some of the foam is still wet (even after two weeks) and continues to cure and expand as it gets exposed to the air. In this case, the entire face area was still wet, and ended up expanding to a big mess. Along with the wet foam on the skull, I sometimes get some left over liquid foam in the mold itself, and I'll let it set up in the mold, resulting in some cool skull face fragments. As I looked at the "blobby" skull and the face fragment, an interesting idea came to mind: A Death Skull Mask. 

I found some old roofing nails and set them into a saltwater bath for a week to get the heavy rusting effect. I then pre-drilled the holes and carefully glued each nail in. I then took some jute rope that I had lying around and decided to connect each nail with the rope, aging and detaching some as I went to create a weathered effect. 

As always, I started with a base coat of dark wood stain on the skull pieces, quickly wiping away the higher areas for a nice corpsed effect. I then took white ceiling paint and painted the white skull areas, also wiping away some of the higher areas. I then finished with black paint and did a light dry brushing for the dirty areas. After the skulls had dried and I was satisfied with the results, the only thing left to do was to create a fun (and most likely non-factually accurate) backstory!

These skulls, along with the previous two sets, will all be displayed on my skull rack in my Halloween yard haunt.


  

"Fear The Walking Dead" Starts Tonight!


Just a friendly reminder that Fear The Walking Dead starts tonight on AMC. See how it all started!




  

"Pray For The Monsters" Stickers by Gary Pullin


Here's a cool set of vinyl stickers, based on the "Pray For The Monsters" series by artist Ghoulish Gary Pullin. Available now at Hell & Co.







 

Ghost - "Meliora"


Ghost's 3rd release, Meliora, finally dropped today! And after a full day of listening to it, I must say that I'm quite impressed.



Definitely a step above their previous release, Infestissumam, Meliora delivers the logical progression of style with their "new singer," Papa Emeritus III. 

Darker and heavier, I did have to give it a few listens before I really got into it. Overall, I do enjoy this more than Infestissumam, but the clean and polished sound is still there, a fact that keeps their first release, Opus Eponymous, as my favorite release, due to the rougher sound. Also, with the band releasing 3 singles before today's full release, I found that the 3 singles were 3 of the best tracks. But really, those are minor dings on a fantastic record...

I was hooked from the start of the first track, Spirit, with its great "Halloween-y" organ intro. And as mentioned, 2 of the 3 pre-released singles, From The Pinnacle to the Pit and Majesty are absolutely incredible songs, ranking near the top with Ritual (from Opus Eponymous). I also found the tracks Absolution and Mummy Dust as two standouts. Heavy guitars, demonic keyboards and soaring, melodic vocals abound on a release that should be in everyone's metal collection.

And be sure to catch Ghost on their new U.S. tour, starting September 22. And be sure to have a beer with me at the September 25th show over in Pittsburgh at Stage AE! Hopefully no bouncers threaten me for taking photos this time around...

 
 


Harpoon - UFO Pumpkin Ale


So it's only mid-August and the pumpkin beers are already infiltrating the local shelves. I usually hold off on the pumpkin beers until about September, but a beer that I hadn't tried before caught my eye. And with an impulse purchase, it's time to break out the annual Drunken Jackos rating system!



Harpoon UFO Pumpkin caught my eye, as it is an unfiltered pumpkin ale. I expected a lighter pumpkin beer (more aligned with an unfiltered wheat) and I wasn't disappointed.

It poured a light, cloudy amber hue and was capped with a nice foam head. It started with a slight caramel note, and had a malty caramel flavor with a hint of pumpkin and spice. It finished smooth with a slight malt aftertaste.

This pumpkin beer has a nice light flavor, as opposed to other heavier, spicier pumpkin beers and is highly recommended to start off the fall season. Overall, a very solid release to get the season going, and because of this, Harpoon UFO Pumpkin gets 3.5 out of 5 Drunken Jackos.




 

"Canis" by Aleix Pitarch




From Blackest Rainbow:

The premise of Canis is two men are trapped in a house which is constantly under siege from a pack of wild dogs. This 15 minute black and white trip into world of handcrafted characters was quite simply put, intense. The story was dark, and one of the things that struck me was there was no dialog, only soundtrack (sounds of dogs and humans), and the score. The score performed by Aleix Pitarch, is 15 minutes of heavy distorted layered drones, monolithic static blasts and dark ambient industrial.


And here is the trailer for Canis:




"Creature From The Black Lagoon" Poster


An absolutely stunning new poster for Creature From the Black Lagoon, created by Stan & Vince. Available from Mondo, but you'll have to be quick...