Cryo Chamber - Tomb of Iconoclasts

Just a quick post for today, as I'm out in the garage repairing all of the broken props from last year's windstorm. A really great dark ambient compilation from the Cryo Chamber label. Tomb Of Iconoclasts is the latest in their Tombs series and makes a perfect dark soundtrack for a day of toiling in the garage. Enjoy!

From the Cryo Chamber YouTube page:
The Tombs series returns with a special roster curated by Apocryphos featuring new and familiar artists, creating atmospheres of dread and existential horror. The knell of a distant bell fallen can be heard within the decayed houses of the gods. Once standing with grandeur and might, these temples are now their own tombs across a wasteland left by man. Recommended for fans of oppressive dark ambient, brooding atmospheric and layered texturing.

  

Halloween 'Zines: Disembodied

It's time for another Halloween 'zine review! Growing up as a punk rock kid, I collected many a fanzine through the years. Small, DIY handmade photocopied, low-budget mini magazines that covered all aspects of the music genre, created and produced by the very participants within that scene. There's just something about holding a small magazine that was created and assembled by hand that always felt so tactile and genuine to me. And when I later became a home haunter, I discovered the same medium and immediately began collecting them.

Up this time is Disembodied Zine created by none other than Slasher Dave! Not only is he a wizard at creating incredible Halloween-themed music, but he holds his own as a fine and graphic artist, as well.

I ended up grabbing the debut issue of Disembodied late last year from Dave's Big Cartel page. I went with the "Box Set" version, as I'm always a sucker for added goodies! In the box, I received the autographed zine itself along with a cool bookmark, pencil, pencil sharpener, pin AND super cool slider puzzle.

And the zine itself is a ton of fun. With a nice, thick two-color cover and black-and-white pages, it takes the incredible essence of Halloween in the 80s and pieces it all out into a handful of great stories (Halloween companies, Halloween haunted houses, Halloween toys, Halloween ads, Halloween costumes, and Halloween TV specials). Add in some fun Halloween-themed word puzzles and games, a page to draw your own haunted house floor plan, and a blank page to draw your own Halloween art, and you have one incredibly awesome Halloween zine.

The debut issue of Disembodied is still available here and is HIGHLY recommended for anyone wanting a shot of that great 80s Halloween magic. Dave really nailed that authentic, old school nostalgia.

The only problem now is having to wait for the next issue to drop! Fingers crossed that we see a new issue yet this October!!

  

National Haunted House Day!

It's the second Friday in October, so that means it's National Haunted House Day! Tonight would be a fine night to visit a local haunted house and help keep the industry thriving and a fun way to celebrate the Halloween season. So go get your scare on!!

 

"Halloween" Record

We have reached the end of another week, so that means it's time for another Freebie Friday offering! Time to share another forgotten gem from the murky depths of my Halloween "spooky sounds" collection.

This week, we're diving into another classic release from 1969, simply titled, "Halloween" on D Records, a country and western label out of Houston, Texas.

If you have ever sampled any of my other Freebie Friday offerings, you already know that the "spooky sounds" cassette industry of the 80s and 90s was an unregulated free-for-all, repackaging older titles quickly and cheaply as new releases. I don't know how many times I have picked up a cassette, excited by the "spooky" title and art, only to find another cheap reproduction of a 70s classic.

Well, with this release we have just the opposite. This one is the original source material for many of the later knockoffs!

Side one starts off a little slowly, with a poorly thrown-together string of random, not-really-Halloween individual sound clips. Weird dog barks, a recording of possibly a Chinese New Year parade with drums and firecrackers, clanking pots and pans, odd springy "boings," and warbling circus organ music...

It isn't until about one-third of the way through this side that things suddenly switch and get interesting. And it's also when I knew I recognized the classic "spooky sounds" from some of those later knock-off tapes! Classic beast howls, creaking doors, howling winds, rattling chains, bubbling cauldrons and sinister laughs... THIS is the stuff!!

Side two continues to deliver the spooky sounds greatness. The harpsichord (I think?) and shrieks, more creaking doors, ghostly moans, werewolf howls, giggling goblins, a weird off-key horn, and whipping winds. It's all here and it's PERFECT! All the classics from the start of the "spooky sounds" craze.

And can you believe we've gotten this far and I still haven't mentioned the incredible cover art? A bold yellow cover with handprinted witch and bats shadows behind a creepy jack-o-lantern, cloaked skeleton, and whipsy ghosts. All under a wonderfully hand-painted "HALLOWEEN" font. It's the whole reason I bought this record in the first place! Still a definite eye-catcher in an ever-growing collection of Halloween records.

This one is a TON of fun and a sure classic that needs a prominent spot in your collection. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD "HALLOWEEN" HERE.

  

Wolf's Ridge Brewing - Pumpkin Spice Daybreak Cream Ale

NINE DAYS into October and not ONE pumpkin beer review!? How could I have let this happen? It's way past time to right this wrong!

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. So let's get to it!

First up is Wolf's Ridge Brewing's Pumpkin Spice Daybreak Cream Ale. This is another small brewery out of Columbus, Ohio, so I'm not sure how far out this one is available.

I initially grabbed this six-pack due to it being a Cream Ale, something new and unique to the usual pumpkin beer market. And on first pour I was a bit surprised by the light golden hue capped off by a classic, thick cream ale head, with only a slight earthy, vegetal note.

On first taste, there was a very creamy and smooth texture with the same nutty, vegetal flavor with a strong dry, vanilla coffee flavor that lingered across the tongue after.

Unfortunately, that coffee aftertaste covered any pumpkin or sweet cinnamon flavor described on the can, and overall felt more like I was drinking a milk stout. 

I really don't think this one hits the October pumpkin target, but the silver lining is that I am going to sit on these for a month or two. I think this will make an excellent beer for Thanksgiving and into early winter.

And because of that, Wolf's Ridge Brewing's Pumpkin Spice Daybreak Cream Ale gets 2 out of 5 Drunken Jackos. This one is still recommended, even if only after the Halloween season!

Ashland Hanging Tattered Reaper Prop Upgrade

My second prop of the season is done! I recently picked up an Ashland Hanging Tattered Reaper from Michael's. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it when I bought it, but I knew that it was a good starting point and that I could make something really cool with it. The only idea I had was to convert it from a flimsy hanging prop into a freestanding piece that would take its place at the front fence of my Cemetery display.

After about two weeks of creating, corpsing, detailing, and fine tuning, I took the finished piece out to a great open field near my house for some epic photos.

My finished piece...

After bringing the original piece home from the store, I got to work disassembling all the parts and building a new t-shaped body frame out of 3/4" PVC piping. I added PVC elbow pieces for the shoulders and neck, and then added extra PVC pieces and elbows to make rigid, bent arms. I next used old packing bubble wrap to bulk out the upper torso. Finally, I hit sections of the main support PVC pipe with a heat gun, bending areas to create a twisted and hunched figure.

I then took the skull and added a screw to the jaw to set it open as if screaming, and did a full, multilayered corpsing with plastic drop cloth and my trusty heat gun. I added a PVC plug into the bottom of the skull, and attached it at an angle to the neck, giving it a contorted, twisted look. And once the head was set, I added a corpsed neck section for added realism and bulk (and to cover the inner PVC frame).

Next, I cut the original, flimsy wire-and-foam arms from the form and stuffed and glued them into the ends of the new PVC arm sections that I had built. Once they were set and dry, I did the same corpsing technique to both arms and hands.

Once the twisted body form was set and fully corpsed, I reattached the original cloak (after a bit of extra tattering, bleach splattering, and a light misting of orange spray paint) to the body. It now had an old, earthy appearance, perfect for the decayed look I was going for. I also ended up leaving the original plastic chain attached, giving it a mist of the orange spray paint to give it an old, rusted look.

After finishing the cloak, the final step was adding a wood stain to the corpsed flesh areas of the body. I concentrated the most detail on the head, adding heavy coats of stain and quickly wiping away the raised areas to create higher contrast around the eyes, nose and mouth.

And that was it! Another new piece ready to be placed into this year's display. A quick and easy upgrade to a store-bought piece that is going to look a thousand times better. I'm SUPER happy with the results and really excited to now start on the next, even bigger prop!

  

Jeff Greinke - "The Moor"

I make no secret of my love of the dark ambient music genre. It sets such a great uneasy mood, and I have always thought that it works really well in haunt settings. With no recognizable patterns or vocals, the audio sits nicely in the background, supporting and heightening the tension of the haunt setting, never becoming a distracting focus.

For years I have been using various dark ambient tracks in my yard haunt, and in the last 4 or 5 I have settled on what I have found to be a perfect track. A wonderful, dark balance of creepiness and eerie foreboding. I absolutely love this track and every time I play it, it instantly takes me into the middle of my yard haunt display...

Enjoy the unofficial haunt soundtrack of Highbury Cemetery, artist Jeff Greinke's 1992 dark ambient masterpiece, The Moor.

  

Halloween Fun At Szalay's Farm

Yes, just yesterday I said that I would be spending the entire weekend in the Cemetery garage, working away on this year's prop list... but sunny skies and 80 degree temperatures in October in Northeast Ohio was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. So we jumped into the car and headed down to Szalay's Farm in the Cuyahoga Valley to experience their annual Halloween festivities: carton after carton of incredible pumpkins, freshly grilled corn on the cob straight from their cornfields, a market full of fresh fall fruits and vegetables, a hayride, various Halloween photo opportunities, their spinning vortex tunnel, and most of all, their annual corn maze!

The weather brought people out from all corners and the entire place was packed, but the Fall and Halloween vibes were in full swing and we still had a blast. I must have been in an extra good mood because I even shelled out for some expensive giant, gnarly pumpkins for this year's display!

The best, of course, was their corn maze, laid out in the shape of a dragon with eight stations set up with different movie-themed scenes. The corn was tall this year so it almost felt like walking through a corn tunnel as we followed the map. 

After walking the entire maze and visiting each scene, we headed home with our goodies. And, I was still able to get back in time to finish up a really great prop for this year's display (I CANNOT WAIT to share this one with you!)

  

Vintage Obscura Halloween Mix [2025] - Side A: The Midnight Monsters Had A Ball

Just a quick post today, as I'm hard at work in the Cemetery garage...

Vintage Obscura has released their first of five weekly October Halloween mixes for 2025, featuring a great collection of 50's and 60's Rockabilly, Novelty, Country, R&B, Religious, and Horror Rock tracks.

A perfect playlist to pipe through the garage while working on your Halloween props and projects. Just like me! Enjoy, and we'll see everyone tomorrow!

(And if you dig this playlist, head over to Spotify and check out the comprehensive playlist of ALL the Vintage Obscura Halloween Mix tracks!)

  

Halloween 'Zines: Haunt

I'm adding a new feature to my October blogging this year: Halloween 'zine reviews!! Growing up as a punk rock kid, I collected many a fanzine through the years. Small, DIY handmade photocopied, low-budget mini magazines that covered all aspects of the music genre, created and produced by the very participants within that scene. There's just something about holding a small magazine that was created and assembled by hand that always felt so tactile and genuine to me. And when I later became a home haunter, I discovered the same medium and immediately began collecting them.

First up is GroovyDoom's Haunt 'zine series. I ended up picking up the entire 10-issue series from the Etsy store and I'm so glad I did. Haunt absolutely nails the Halloween nostalgia in each issue, with pages crammed full of black-and-white Halloween ads, photos and article clippings from the 70's and 80's (my wheelhouse!).

As I flipped through each issue, I was transported back to those magical October days of my youth when I would race home from school and grab the Friday magazine insert from the newspaper, quickly scanning newsprint page after newsprint page of local haunted house ads (which in Northeast Ohio there were tons!) until my fingers were black from the ink. And then at dinner, I would BEG my parents to take me and my friends to each of them.

And while each issue of Haunt is a quick read, there is still enough old Halloween fun to keep me greedily grabbing for the next issue.

The entire Haunt 'zine series is a must-have, with super-cool illustrated covers and loads of old Halloween and haunted house ads. Each issue is a total blast to flip through and is a welcome slice of Halloweens past. And the photocopied black-and-white pages take me back to being a punk rock kid again.

Issue 11 is dropping now and all issues are available at the GroovyDoom Etsy store. Get it now!

  

"Spook Stuff For Hallowe'en" Record

It's the first Friday of October, and that can mean only one thing...

The return of Freebie Fridays!

Every Friday in October, I dig up one of the vintage novelty Halloween soundtrack cassettes, CDs, or vinyl records from my ever-growing collection and share it with all of my fellow classic "spooky sounds" junkies.

I've been doing this for quite a few years now, and I still absolutely love doing it. It's a great way to share the love during the Halloween season, and a great way to (re)discover some really neat-and-or-hilarious old novelty soundtracks from Halloweens long past.

So let's get down to business!!

Up first, we have Spook Stuff For Hallowe'en dating all the way back from 1960! This is an early classic and a no-brainer addition to your collection based on the amazing cover art alone!

(During the same year, this was re-released with a new title, Howlin' Hallowe'en: The Sounds Of Spook Stuff with equally amazing cover art. It's not in my collection yet and although it's the same audio with a different cover, it still ranks high on the want list.)

A Haunting 40 Minutes Of Scary, Spooky Stories-In-Sound - Also Suitable For Dramatic Sound Effects And Party Fun The Year 'Round

If you have grabbed any of the other offerings here in Octobers past, you will immediately recognize many of the sounds on side one, as they have been used countless times over in later releases. Howling wolves and wind, crying cats, cracking thunder, cackling witches and goblins, bubbling cauldrons... but it's just SO GOOD!! Don't forget this was put out in 1960! Groundbreaking sound effects for the time that set the tone for the "spooky sounds" genre to come (including four years before Disney's iconic Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House!) that still hits the Halloween nostalgia vibe.

Side two continues the collection of sound effects, this time loosely segmented into themes: Haunted Mine, Cemetery At Midnight, Halloween At The Haunted Castle, etc. The descriptions on the back of the record sleeve are more inspiring than the sound effects themselves, but the whole side is still a really fun listen. Especially the super kooky Halloween At The Haunted Castle vocal effects tracks! From there, the last three tracks devolve into hilarious vocal effect weirdness, straying from traditional "spooky sounds" and experimenting with then-modern oscillation, echo and reverb.

All in all, a really great piece of Halloween "spooky sounds" history and a great piece to add to your collection.

DOWNLOAD "SPOOK STUFF FOR HALLOWE'EN" HERE.

  

Defund The HOA!!

NEWS FLASH! My local neighborhood is in a frenzy! A neighbor has been asked by the Home Owners Association to take down her Halloween decorations because it doesn't comply with the new rule that went into effect on June 1st.

The new rule prohibits any holiday decorations to be placed in your yard prior to TEN DAYS before the holiday. The exception, of course, are the "Winter" holidays where you can place them starting November 15th.

WHAT!?!?

Her notification further requests that she takes them down ONLY TO PUT THEM BACK UP ON THE 14TH OF OCTOBER in compliance with the new rule. This is absolutely (please fill in your favorite expletive here) crazy!!

I don't even set anything up in my yard until two weeks before Halloween, but I can in no way agree to this or even see how this is even legal. The HOA has egregiously overstepped its authority in declaring something like this and has kicked the proverbial "hornet's nest" with this.

Here is the page from the new HOA "rulebook" (a book with a return form that I have not yet signed and returned to them, and at this point probably won't).

The neighborhood Facebook group page is starting to see pushback and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It's far from over, but I'll keep updating the blog as things progress...

  

Midnight Syndicate - "Sleep (Roxyblue Remix)"

I want to give a huge shoutout of congratulations to my good haunt friend Roxyblue! Her remix of the track Sleep has been included on the newest Midnight Syndicate release, Darkened Corners.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this track. Much darker, minimal and melancholic than the usual Midnight Syndicate fare, Sleep is a short, haunting whisp of classical Gothic unease with just the right amount of subtle spookiness. Easily the best track on the new release and one that should go into everyone's Halloween playlist.

Congrats, Bonnie! And enjoy!

  

Highbury Cemetery Logo, 2025

Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...

IT'S OFFICIALLY THE HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to kick off the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is my 15th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??

We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??

So let's get this thing started, shall we!?

Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my annual yard haunt logo. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt. 

For the past 21 years, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used across social media and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night. A well deserved treat for all of the hard work that goes into this crazy thing every year.

So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2025:

YEAR TWENTY-TWO. So many good memories and still so much fun, why stop now?!

Only 30 days until the big night, so let's get this pumpkin party started. Let's do this!!

  

It's Time.

Here we are. The final day of September. I literally have no idea how we got here so fast. To me it still feels like August, but tomorrow is in fact October 1st. Go time. It's orange alert, all hands on deck, 100% Halloween season. IT'S TIME!

Illustration by Sam Heimer.

Tomorrow starts the annual Countdown To Halloween, where I'll be dropping posts like mad all month long up until the big night. It's time to get into the spirit and get things moving. A quick flip from summer relaxation to the high-output energy of autumn. And things are beginning to stir once again at Highbury Cemetery.

Be sure to check back tomorrow as I kick off another black-and-orange blitz of Halloween fun and frivolity. This is it. IT IS TIME!

  

Horror Section - "Hell On Earth"

Here's a great one for your weekend! Horror Section's brand new track, Hell On Earth, from their upcoming release "Part III: Return To Rot" (wanna preorder it now?). A perfect little pop punk homage to the horror classic, Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth.

What started in hell will end on earth. Enjoy!

  

Home Depot Eternal Embrace Tombstone Prop Upgrade

My first prop of the season is done! I recently picked up a 40 in. Grave & Bones Eternal Embrace Tombstone from Home Depot. Another really great sculpt on a big box store-bought piece, and with a little bit of added detail would make a fantastic new statue for my Cemetery display. It would also make a great companion piece to last year's Grim Reaper statue project.

The finished piece, shot at my local cemetery...

I made quick work of detailing this piece, using a similar technique to last year's: start with a wash of black paint for the recessed areas and a light wash of white paint in the highlight areas for added detail and depth, followed by a quick dry brushing of green for recessed areas of moss. I then went in and added drippy black tears from the blackened eyes, streaking down the front of the piece. I wanted to concentrate the most detail into the facial area creating a subtle main focal point. The final step would then be a heavy coating of air compressor-and-webcaster hot glue stick spider webbing to give it a well-aged look...

The original piece, right out of the box. Really not bad, but lacks any detail or depth...

With a black paint wash added to darken the recessed shadow areas.

Now with a white paint wash added to pump up the contrast of the highlight areas...

And then a dry brushed green for a mossy effect in the recessed areas. The moss really gives it an aged, organic look.

The final step of adding black tears down the face from blackened eyes, and then a heavy coating of spider webs to give it a decayed, creepy, old look. And the added detail in the faces creates a great, natural focal point to the piece.

I'm REALLY happy with the way this turned out. I was able to detail this piece in short time and the old, decayed look was achieved with relative ease. The cherry on top being that I was able to get my compressor and webcaster gun working correctly and got much better looking webbing than on last year's statue.

Another great piece ready to go into this year's display and the motivation to jump into my next project on the list. Let's go.