Halloween Music Page




I added another page to the blog today. Why not check out the new Halloween Music page, where you can grab a copy of some classic novelty Halloween records, complete with every pop, crackle and skip! Vintage vinyl records (and cassette tapes) digitized for your Halloween enjoyment. Be sure to come back often, as I'll be adding more selections as my collection continues to grow!

  

Funerary Call - "The Mirror Reversed - Part 1"


From Cyclic Law:

For this new opus, Harlow Macfarlane found inspiration from personal interpretations of the Tree of Death and what is considered to represent the reverse or occult side of the Tree of Life, a diagram of the negative forces or Qliphoth (Hebrew, Shells) assigned to each Sephiroth. They represent the counter-forces of the ten divine emanations as described by the ancient Qabalists and the paths or tunnels that connect to these infernal realms and the various demonic forces that inhabit them. The constant shifting of sounds and tones are a metaphoric reflection of these various "shells" and chaotic entities. Built as one continuous piece with various chapters, this new album serves as a vehicule for delving deeply into the shadow side.



Closed Casket Studios Sale


Local friends of Highbury Cemetery, Closed Casket Studios are currently running a killer sale on their masks and prop heads through Sunday, July 26.



I got to see their work in person at the Midwest Haunters Convention and was really impressed with the quality of their lineup.

And being that they are literally 5 minutes away, I drove over and acquired the "Voodoo Variant" zombie prop head. Complete with bloody eyes and mouth and some gnarled grey hair. Suffice to say that I love the retro sculpt and the paint job...



They have released a few other masks and prop heads, all of which are top notch. And with this weekend's sale, now would be a good time to add one to your collection:






And tell 'em Highbury sent you!!

 

100 Days




Burnout. It happens to the best of us...

After this year's Midwest Haunters Convention, I came home inspired and ready to go. I had a few different projects going, and I was ready to finish them all up and then start on the next round. Except it never happened.

The creative spark quickly faded away and I had zero motivation to work on anything. And I knew exactly what was causing it: the dreaded burnout. Luckily, I was able to recognize what it was and I immediately stopped everything. The "to-do list" went into the trash. Props still sit in the garage and basement, waiting to be completed, but I'm okay with that. Nothing will kill a project faster than trying to get it done just to get it done...

The past two months off really helped my creativity. I refocused on other, non-Halloween things and I was able to clean out the cobwebs from the October side of the brain.

And I'm glad I did. Last week, I realized that we were getting close to the 100 day countdown to the big night, and with renewed spirit I restarted the creativity machine. First up, some new blog art. 

Nothing gets me going quite like working on new design work, so I decided to update the blog masthead banner. As soon as I started, the ideas and creativity exploded. After the new banner, I cranked out the new "100 Days" image above. Boom! The countdown is on!!

After that, I went to work on some of the framework of the blog. If you'll notice the "Pages" section to the right, I added two new (and much-needed) pages.

The first, and most important, is the new "Highbury Halloween Prop How-Tos" page. Every Halloween prop how-to I have ever done is now conveniently cataloged into one page. And I even whipped up a small banner for this page, too.

The second is the new "Cemetery Photography" page. All of my Cemetery Sundays visits through local cemeteries are now cataloged in one place. Tons of cemetery photos that can be used for reference when creating tombstone props or just to look at if you enjoy the beauty and detail of old tombstones.

I also still have the "Highbury's Halloween Punkcast Series" page, where you can download all of my horror-themed punk rock mixes for free. Nothing like these tracks to fuel you through a late-night prop-building session!

And I have at least one or two more pages that I will be adding as the days go on, but I'm going to shift back to all of those unfinished props for now. I have a few new posts ready to go, so I should be adding new posts more frequently.

The switch has been thrown and the creative juices are again flowing. It feels great to be back and ready to knock out a new season of Halloween goodness.

Only 100 days to go!!


  

Kammarheit "The Nest" Promo Video


From Cyclic Law:

10 years after the now cult classic album “The Starwheel”, Kammarheit finally offers us brand new material of his most complex work yet. Pär Boström returns with his typical atmospheres that are both apocalyptic in vision and soothing to the soul, delivering a dense and compelling album of pure, awe-inspiring darkness and meditative ambience. With The Nest, Pär takes us on a subterranean journey through enormous halls of unfathomable depths, and with the new opus he demonstrates once again why he’s become one of the most respected artist in dark ambient.