Whodini - "The Haunted House Of Rock"

It's not always so serious over here at Highbury Cemetery...

 

The Haunters - "Messages From Beyond The Veil"

Here is one I have been sitting on for a while, but a dreary Sunday morning was the perfect time to finally post it.

Subdued explorations of uncanny territories. Spectral hiss and abstraction of the immaterial.

The Haunters' Messages From Beyond The Veil is a great 4-track release, oozing with droning dark ambient and hollow industrial atmosphere. Another perfect soundtrack for the dark, melancholic and creepy side of the Halloween season.

Enjoy!

 

Talking Skeleton Prop Upgrade

Does anyone remember "Make & Takes"? It was when a group of haunters would get together and work on a prop project, helping each other out until everyone had a complete prop to go home with. Those were the days...

Waaaay back in 2012, I attended a great Make & Take session with the Garage of Evil Northern Ohio Home Haunters group (RIP). We all purchased a talking skull kit and assembled it during an afternoon together. I was so happy with my talking skull, I decided to fabricate a grim reaper body out of PVC pipes for it, complete with an aged, hooded cloak, skeleton hands, and a hidden particle board shelf within the chest cavity area to house a set of computer speakers to handle the audio. It worked great and was a big hit for that year's haunt display. I recorded custom audio for it to speak and it quickly became a focal point of the haunt.

Original talking skeleton build, 2012.

Fast forward 14 years, and the prop has now seen better days. The past few years, the audio would cut out or completely fail, rendering it a useless static prop. The motherboard finally gave out last year, 10 minutes into trick-or-treat...

So for this year, a total refresh was top of the list for prop upgrades. I quickly decided that a replacement talking skull kit would be the main focus, along with some cloak details and an adjustment to the size of the speaker shelf.

After researching talking skull kits, I settled on an already-fabricated kit from Cowlacious Designs. I didn't have the time to build a kit this far into October, so I opted for the Assembled Scary Terry Talking Skull With ST-450 Board. And I couldn't have been happier when it showed up. Very solid build and ready to go right out of the box. And the addition of red LED eyes that were programmed to pulse along with the audio was a huge upgrade! 

I dropped my custom audio track onto a microSD card, plugged it into the motherboard slot, and fired it up. Flawless from the start.

And with the time I saved on having to build this kit myself, I was able to really focus in on the skull itself. A basic, bright white skull will NEVER do at Highbury Cemetery, so I set about detailing it to look much creepier, older, decayed and realistic. I gave a dark wood stain dry brushing over the whole thing for more contrast and then further darkened all of the recessed areas in the eyes, nose and mouth. I even went in and removed some of the skull's teeth for added age, decay and withered detail. A few quick steps that made a world of difference on the final piece.

The original skull kit vs. the new skull kit. I didn't realize what a difference until they were side-by-side.

After the skull was complete, I deteriorated the reaper cloak with various paints and sandpaper to give it an dried, aged look. I wanted it to look dull and dusty, like it had already spent centuries in an old, musty tomb.

The last piece to address was the speaker shelf. It worked great holding the hidden speakers inside the chest cavity area, but it stuck out a bit too far when the prop was fully assembled. That is, you could see the edges of the shelf protruding out from the reaper cloak. Something that always bothered the perfectionist in me. But it was finally and quickly remedied with a trim from my Sawzall. I also used a permanent glue to adhere the speakers to the shelf so that they could no longer tip over and fall off the shelf during the night.

And once it was all put together, the last thing to do was set it up and grab the camera. I'm really, really happy with this new, upgraded version. And I'm really, really happy with the way the skull turned out. I can't wait to get this guy back out to the front of the display where he belongs, functioning correctly and mesmerizing all of the visitors that walk by.

"Halloween At Home - Fiendish Wailing Ghostly Stories" Record

Second Friday of October, so that means another Freebie Friday offering!

Up this time is the Halloween At Home - Fiendish Wailing Ghostly Stories record from 1972...

Now it's time to visit the land of horror. Sit back. Turn up the volume. Dim the lights. Close your eyes. Enjoy your journey...and may daybreak come soon!

I see this particular release for sale each Halloween season, and finally picked it up this time around. And I'm so glad I did. While not of the typical "spooky sounds" collection of sounds, this record starts off on the first side with a narrated collection of classic horror short stories. And each is voiced with a really great actor, adding to the campy, creepy fun of each story.

Side two is more a collection of spooky sounds, but with the addition of narration on a few of the tracks. This gives more of a separate storyline to each sound. It doesn't flow as one continuous track, but again the great narration really makes this a fun gathering of sounds.

Overall, this is definitely geared toward smaller children and goes very light on anything really scary, but it's presented in a fun, campy sort of creepy way. And the great production quality adds to the overall package, giving it a unique spot within anyone's Halloween collection.

Definitely with the listen!

DOWNLOAD "HALLOWEEN AT HOME - FIENDISH WAILING GHOSTLY STORIES" HERE.

Hexentanz - "Mark Of The Witch"

Just a quick post today, but this one is really great. I discovered this track while creating an Instagram post and immediately had to find out more about it.

From the Hexentanz Bandcamp page:
Hexentanz emerged first in 2004 with Michael W. Ford, Mark Riddick, Michael Riddick and Dana Dark, producing dark ritual ambient music. Hexentanz presents a dark ritualistic examination of the Witches Sabbath coupled with themes of medieval necromancy. Composed with actual period instruments, synthetic ritual devices, human bones, and authentic arcane chants of medieval and modern occult practice. 

Human bones? Sounds good to me! I absolutely love the dark tribal, rhythmic drums and ritual chanting on this track. When I first heard it, my immediate thought was that it would be perfect background audio in a haunt scene. The entire record has since made its way into my October playlist, and will become a staple of the Halloween season. Definitely one to add to your collection.

Enjoy!

The Brew Kettle - Pumpkin Drop Lager

Every October, I like to pick up a few six packs of whatever seasonal pumpkin beer is on the local grocer's shelves, bring them home and sample them, and then write a detailed review, based on my highly scientific Drunken Jackos Rating Scale. Pumpkin beers have long been a fun piece of the Halloween season and make for a perfect little treat for those long nights toiling away in the garage.

First up this season is The Brew Kettle's Pumpkin Drop Lager. Now The Brew Kettle is a small, local brewery out of Strongsville, Ohio and there's a good chance you won't be able to find it outside of Northeast Ohio. But that fantastic can art immediately drew my attention and immediately went into my cart, headed straight for the Drunken Jackos rating system. So here we go!

Upon opening the 16 oz. can, I was first greeted with a nice, subtle, sweet cinnamon pumpkin note. And the beer poured a light amber color with a tall, fizzy head.

Before the first sip, I noticed the sweetness of the pumpkin scent had settled, leaving a more earthy scent. And the sip itself was light and crisp, typical of lagers, leaving a slight, dry aftertaste.

Overall, I actually felt the flavor was a little thin. With neither a predominantly sweet pumpkin pie nor dry, earthy, organic nut profile, the beer still had a nice balance and was very drinkable throughout. This beer will definitely go into the cooler on Halloween night.

And so with the cool can graphics together with the typical lager drinkability, The Brew Kettle's Pumpkin Drop Lager gets a 3 out of 5 Drunken Jackos. Just an easy drinking beer for someone not looking to go too far on either end of the pumpkin beer flavor range.