Primer about My DyING BRIDE

As I reread a lot of my work on this journal, it occurs to me that it often swings back and forth between media and political musings. This is for a reason. Put simply, I have a very low supply left of patience for examples of normalist prejudice, and getting bombarded with such day in and day out means sometimes I need to blow off steam by sharing examples of good and unusual media. Usually, those two words, good and unusual, come together.

Fantômas (aka Mike Patton is a genius, part three of many)

So I am sitting around, thinking to myself about what I am going to write next, and I think to myself “you know, Dean, you have just written about a piece of art that you enjoy by counting and laughing at all of the mistakes, so why not try writing about something you consider good or even great?”. And since I have not written about the recently-realised genius that Michael Allan Patton has been displaying over the last ten to fifteen years, why not?

Crank: High Voltage (aka Mike Patton is a genius, part two)

So one of my unforgiveable hobbies, as it turns out, is to watch films that offer a perspective on the world that is not coincidental with the Everyone Is A Child nonsense coming out of mainstream media’s mouth. And one of the best examples of this is a fun little piece called Crank: High Voltage. Crank: High Voltage is a sequel to Crank, a film I did not really enjoy that much until after I saw Crank: High Voltage. More on that in a moment.

We need to talk about Mr. Bungle (aka Mike Patton is a genius, part one of several)

In 1989 or thereabouts, I became aware of a crossover band by the name of Faith No More. Like many who became aware of them at this time, it was through sight of a music video for a single called Epic. The video for Epic was (mostly) very simplistic in nature, with the majority of shots simply being the band in front of a very elaborate backdrop, playing their instruments. But one of the many details that stood out to me was a shirt worn by vocalist Mike Patton in at least one shot. That shirt noticeably featured the logo of the other band Patton was vocalist for at the time: Mr. Bungle.

Revisiting the classics: Faith No More – Angel Dust

I make no secret of this fact. I am getting old. And I do not merely mean old in the sense that I am now not young enough to see any novelty in being granted the privilege of voting in subtly rigged elections or buying my own vodka. I mean old in the sense that I see Death standing across the road from me, waving a hand, and promising that he will see me soon. I mean old in the sense that when he does this, I ask him if he can make it quick and at least relatively painless. I do not want to live in a normalistic world run by the kind of morons my grandfather would happily have lined up against a wall and shot, thanks very much.

Alice Cooper… what the hell happened?

I have devoted a lot of words, more than I am willing to admit, to the fact that Black Sabbath are awesome beyond words. For the simple reason that they codified and set an ISO-like standard for the art form that would eventually be known as doom metal. But whilst they took this art and made it mainstream, they were far from the only or first example of music that was designed from the get-go to disturb the listener. So, in the interests of providing wholeness to my represented view of history, today I am going to talk about one of the other great influences upon my visual art, my limited forays in music, and most importantly my writing. Anyone who has heard the sagas of characters like Kronisk and Linula already know the person I am talking about. Today, we are going to discuss a few points in the musical career of one Vincent Damon Furnier, or as he has been signing things since shortly after he achieved fame under this alias, Alice Cooper.