Editorials
2011 BLACK FRIDAY CHOPPING LIST: MUSIC
Wow. This year saw new releases from metal titans Megadeth, Anthrax and Mastodon. But we know that, while metal pumps deeply in the hearts of most BD readers, it’s not the only type of music that blows your skirt up. So click below for the badass selection of film scores, hip-hop and yes bone-crushing metal that makes up the 2011 Music edition of our Chopping List. We’ve switched the purchase links over to iTunes this year (for the most part) so familiarize yourself with their “gift this item” feature. If you just want old-school discs, then most of these titles are readily available at Amazon as well.
List Price: $9.99
I fell in love with Mastodon two years ago when I heard Crack The Skye. It instantly took me back to the days when metal could be textured, ambitious, musical and symphonic. It felt like a Master Of Puppets for the new millennium. This new record trades in some of the epics for shorter songs and adds some more hooks but also finds a way to remain more interesting than The Black Album. For one, The Hunter actually has a bit of a sense of humor. Highly recommended and bound to brighten the holidays of any old-school metal fan.
List Price: $9.99
This one hasn’t actually been getting a ton of critical love, which I’m a little baffled by. For one, it goes without saying that it’s miles better than Strays. And while it’s not an instant classic like Nothing’s Shocking or Ritual it has plenty of merits. Dave Sitek’s production helps the band back into those dark corners it was born in and the result is kind of like a cool codeine dream of a record. It has some of the slow mysticism of the second Porno For Pyros record combined with the textures and groove Jane’s is known for. If you know a Jane’s fan who has written this album off as a matter of course – go ahead and get it for them. They’ll be pleasantly surprised.
List Price: $9.99
From Jonathan Barkan’s review.
“This album is a perfect mixture of creepy and beautiful, calming yet unsettling. Also a prog album, this one leans more towards the “arty” side of the genre rather than Leprous’ rock/metal. With definite nods to the Goblin and Tangerine Dream horror/sci-fi soundtracks, each track on this album is representative of some form of apocalypse, whether it be natural disaster or financial ruin. For those rainy evenings when you can lay back and let yourself get lost in the music, Terminal Twilight is one of the best accompaniments I can recommend.”
List Price: More Details Dec. 2nd
There’s obviously no new Nine Inch Nails record this year but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a kick ass release from Trent Reznor. I adored the score for The Social Network and the snippets I heard of the Tattoo during a footage presentation a few months back sounded even better – driving the footage to an unrelentingly intense culmination. The track listing has yet to be announced but we can only hope that Reznor’s “Immigrant Song” collaboration with Karen O. makes the cut. More details are available on Dec 2nd which, knowing Reznor, is probably pretty soon to when the album is released digitally. I’d bet a kidney it’s out before Christmas.
List Price: $7.99
From Jonathan Barkan’s review.
“Looking more and more like my Album of the Year, this prog/rock/metal masterpiece doesn’t have a single song I’d classify as “filler”. It also adds in enough stylistic changes to keep things constantly interesting (just check out the awesome funk bass riff in “Mediocrity Wins”, the lullaby-esque intro to “Mb. Indifferentia”, or the eerie piano opening to “Acquired Taste”). I’ve been coming back to this album over and over again since I got it, which is becoming a rarer occurrence these days.”
List Price: $9.99
Honestly, I’d kind of lost track of Megadeth after Countdown To Extinction but coming back and listening to Th1rt3en it feels like they haven’t missed much of a beat. A lot of the stuff I’d heard here and there over the years was light on hooks and heavy on riffage, but in this new release the two exist side by side in fairly sustainable portions. And finding religion doesn’t seem to have made Mustaine too soft at all.
List Price: $11.99/Deluxe $14.99
This album may not reach the heights of Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy but it certainly outpaces Jay-Z’s last offering by a lap and a half. It’s a lot of fun to hear these two friends and artistic rivals challenge each other into exploring new levels. It’s an epic game of one-upmanship that makes a perfect universal gift (provided the recipient is at least in middle school).
List Price: $9.99
From Jonathan Barkan’s review.
“Sometimes you just have to put on tunes that make you rock out. And what better band to do it to than Anthrax? Not only do you have an album full of kickass songs but one of them, Fight ‘Em Til You Can’t, is about surviving the zombie apocalypse! So gather up your survival gear, pop this sucker onto your iPod, and show them what you’ve got.”
List Price: $9.99
Another under-appreciated gem from earlier in the year. While you can’t argue that it’s better than the first record – it certainly rocks harder and more melodically than almost any other mainstream release this year. “Under Cover Of Darkness” is groovy and cathartic and “Gratisfaction” downright channels Thin Lizzy. If you know a classic rock fan in need of something new, pass this along. “Taken For A Fool” is another highlight.
List Price: $9.99
This thing! I had it on repeat in my car for literally three weeks after I saw the film! And I suspect when I get another dose of one of the year’s best movies on Blu-ray that this soundtrack will go right back into regular rotation. The first five songs are those perfect east-side LA retro synth sounding songs that somehow you still love despite their hipster pedigree. After that the disc settles into Cliff Martinez’s shimmery, ambient score. An album you can literally drive around to in any town and it automatically makes the streets you’re cruising cool as hell.
List Price: $9.99
Know someone who loves Metal at its darkest, most brutal and uncompromising? Know someone who loves insane tempo changes? Know someone who love the double bass drum? Then get this for them. Just do it. They remind me of Pantera in the purity of their intentions but also manage to bring some Iron Maiden-esque mystique and harmonies into the mix without coming across as silly.
List Price: $9.99
Know someone who’s a fan of Tool and A Perfect Circle but can’t seem to stretch the arms of their musical fandom beyond metal? This is a good first step. The presence of Maynard James Keenan will draw them in and, while there’s till plenty of heavy stuff on the record, introduce them to a wide swath of experimental sounds and ideas. A really interesting record.
List Price: $9.99
From Jonathan Barkan’s review.
“C’mon people, this movie is a classic and Ennio Morricone’s music is pretty much burned into our brains at this point. Put on this album, close your eyes, and watch the movie from memory. Almost as good as watching the movie itself.”
List Price: $12.99
From Jonathan Barkan’s review.
“If your morbid curiosity can’t take it any longer and you just HAVE to know what this horrific mess sounds like, please wait until Black Friday, when I’m guessing this will be in the dollar bin. That way you can at least spend as little money as possible on it. And once you realize you never want to listen to it again, you can use it as a drink coaster! Two for the price of one (dollar)!”
Editorials
11 Years Later: The Horrific Cycles of Violence in ‘Only God Forgives’ Starring Ryan Gosling
Traditionally, movie theater walkouts are usually associated with the horror genre, with infamous cases ranging from 1973’s The Exorcist (particularly during the crucifix masturbation scene) and even Lars Von Trier’s controversial serial killer memoir, The House That Jack Built.
That being said, there are exceptions to this rule, as some movies manage to terrorize audiences into leaving the theater regardless of genre. One memorable example of this is Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2013 revenge thriller Only God Forgives, a film so brutal and inaccessible that quite a few critics ended up treating it like a snuff film from hell back when it was first released. However, I’ve come to learn that horror fans have a knack for seeing beyond the blood and guts when judging the value of a story, and that’s why I’d like to make a case for Winding’s near-impenetrable experiment as an excellent horror-adjacent experience.
Refn originally came up with the idea for Only God Forgives immediately after completing 2009’s Valhalla Rising and becoming confused by feelings of anger and existential dread during his wife’s second pregnancy. It was during this time that he found himself imagining a literal fistfight with God, with this concept leading him to envision a fairy-tale western set in the far east that would deal with some of the same primal emotions present in his Viking revenge story.
It was actually Ryan Gosling who convinced the director to tackle the more commercially viable Drive first, as he wanted to cement his partnership with the filmmaker in a more traditional movie before tackling a deeply strange project. This would pay off during the production of Only God Forgives, as the filmmaking duo was forced to use their notoriety to scrounge up money at a Thai film festival when local authorities began demanding bribes in order to allow shooting to continue.
In the finished film, Gosling plays Julian, an American ex-pat running a Muay-Thai boxing club alongside his sociopathic brother Billy (Tom Burke). When Billy gets himself killed after sexually assaulting and murdering a teenager, Julian is tasked by his disturbed mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) with tracking down those responsible for the death of her first-born child. What follows is a surreal dive into the seedy underbelly of Bangkok as the cycle of revenge escalates and violence leads to even more violence.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
There’s no right or wrong way to engage with art, but there are some films that clearly require more effort from the audience side in order to be effective. And while you can’t blame cinemagoers for just wanting to enjoy some passive entertainment, I think it’s always worth trying to meet a work of art on its own terms before judging it.
Despite being a huge fan of Drive, I avoided Only God Forgives for a long time because of its poor critical reception and excessively esoteric presentation. It was only years later that I gave the flick a chance when a friend of mine described the experience as “David Lynch on cocaine.” It was then that I realized that nearly everything critics had complained about in the film are precisely what made it so interesting.
If you can stomach the deliberate pacing, you’ll likely be fascinated by this stylish nightmare about morally questionable people becoming trapped in a needless cycle of violence and retaliation. Not only is the photography impeccable, turning the rain-slicked streets of Bangkok into a neo-noir playground, but the bizarre characters and performances also help to make this an undeniably memorable movie. And while Gosling deserves praise as the unhinged Julian, I’d argue that Vithaya Pansringarm steals the show here as “The Angel of Vengeance,” even if his untranslated dialogue is likely to be unintelligible for most viewers.
However, I think the lack of subtitles ends up enhancing the mood here (even though some editions of the film ended up including them against the director’s wishes), adding to the feeling that Julian is a stranger in a strange land while also allowing viewers to project their own motivations onto some of the “antagonists.”
And while Only God Forgives is frequently accused of burying its narrative underneath a pile of artsy excess, I think the heart of the film is rather straightforward despite its obtuse presentation. I mean, the moral here is basically “revenge isn’t fun,” which I think is made clear by the horrific use of violence (though we’ll discuss that further in the next section).
To be clear, I’m still not sure whether or not I enjoyed this movie, I just know that I’m glad I watched it.
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
There are two different kinds of gore effects. One of them is meant to entertain viewers with exaggerated wounds and excessive blood as you admire the craftsmanship behind the filmmaking. The other kind is simply a tool meant to simulate what actually happens when you injure a human body. Like I mentioned before, Only God Forgives isn’t trying to be “fun,” so you can guess what kind gore is in this one…
From realistic maimings to brutal fist fights that feel more painful than thrilling, the “action” label on this flick seems downright questionable when the majority of the experience has you wincing at genuinely scary acts of grisly violence. I mean, the story begins with an unmotivated rampage through the streets of late-night Bangkok and ends with the implication of even more pointless violence, so it’s pretty clear that you’re not really meant to root for an “action hero” here.
I can’t even say that the deaths resemble those from slasher flicks because the movie never attempts to sensationalize these horrific acts, with Refn preferring to depict them as straightforward consequences of violent people going through the motions – which is somehow even scarier than if this had just been yet another hyper-violent revenge movie.
Not only that, but the characters’ overall lack of moral principles makes this story even more disturbing, with the main antagonist being the closest thing to a decent person among the main cast despite also being a brutal vigilante.
Only God Forgives doesn’t care if you like it or not (and actually takes measures to make sure that the viewing experience is often unpleasant), but if you’re willing to step up to this cinematic challenge and engage with the narrative and visuals on their own terms, I think you’ll find an unforgettable nightmare waiting for you on the other side.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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