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)!”
“Elevated Horror.” Of all the combinations in the English language, that one is the most insufferable.
It represents almost a decade of scary movies that, for the most part, took themselves too seriously. Horror responds to the moment, so its “why so serious” lean makes sense as we scuttle through the “worst of times” equation of Charles Dickens’ famous opening lines. But there’s still an opening and a need for a lighter approach; one that not only has fun with its audience but takes the piss out of a genre that is seemingly letting its newfound “respectability” go to its head.
Wes Craven believed devotees see horror films to let out their fears one primal scream at a time. At their core, these movies are roller coasters; they bring us as close to the edge as possible before pulling us back into a safety net of reality. The need for a bigger and badder coaster increases during times when the size of that net decreases.
There’s a thrill that comes from imagining being in a foot race with a madman, or outthinking the hordes of zombies on the other side of the door, plus the scavenger humans coming behind them. There’s even a rush that comes from imagining how one might deal with possession to see good triumph over evil in the end. It’s all about building tension and releasing it through catharsis. That cathartic release usually sounds like screams followed by laughter, which signals relief. Genre heavy hitters over the past 10 years offered very little of that respite when the credits rolled. Films like Hereditary, The Witch, Talk to Me, and even Smile (pick one) keep that tension going after the screen fades to black.
Hereditary
As the genre became obsessed with creating trauma metaphors, that lack of release made sense. Anyone with even a small sample size of traumatic experiences knows those emotions don’t magically resolve themselves in an allotted run time. But how much trauma can one take? Especially when there’s a mess going on outside that few of us can escape from. Movies offer that off-ramp, no matter how short.
Everything can’t be, nor should it be, “elevated.” Audiences need thoughtful explorations of life’s ills via monsters as much as they need murdering masked maniacs with kitchen knives. And no, it doesn’t have to go any deeper than that. Sometimes, a knife is just a knife, and it’s still worth our time and respect. As weird as it sounds, that simplicity is comforting not in spite of the trauma but because of it.
The worst of times should manifest more than just anguish. People need to laugh just as much as they need to think seriously about this moment in time. Even the Scream franchise forgot the meta rock upon which it built its church when the latest foray sacrificed the subtle comedy for serious drama. Scary Movie returned at the perfect moment. It provides the necessary laughs, but it’s not a cure-all.
This isn’t a call for Scary Movie imitators but a return to a mainstream landscape where Killer Klowns from Outer Space sat with The Serpent and the Rainbow, nestled neatly with the latest Nightmare on Elm Street, which took nothing away from The Vanishing.
They Live
Even They Live, John Carpenter’s horror sci-fi satire sandwich, kept its tongue firmly in cheek while discussing serious ideas still relevant in 2026. Yes, a film about aliens taking over the world through subliminal messaging only visible through coded sunglasses is, in fact, a tad silly. Carpenter understood that mainstream horror can’t become so self-important that it never looks itself in the mirror and laughs at that inherent silliness.
The thing is, horror historically excels at poking fun at itself. Most of the Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, or The Blackening show adoration without kowtowing. They recognize tropes and trappings but invert them for an audience already in on the joke, but one that also finds solace in said conventions. This keeps the genre on its toes; once something gets parodied, it’s usually time to evolve. That breeds new ideas and fresh filmmakers, which not only strengthen the genre’s collective voice but also amplify it.
Get Out, as “elevated” as some critics want us to believe it is, is a cathartic, populist scary movie that spoke to an untapped audience rather than speaking down to them. Backrooms is one of the biggest horror hits in years, partially because it’s fine-tuned for modern-day teenagers instead of their parents. Movies like these tell everyone the genre is open for business; open for innovation and, yeah, open for new ways in which people can lovingly poke fun at with a wink and a nudge.
Horror needs dread as much as it needs laughter.
Catharsis is just as important as tension, and pulpy populism has the same merit as more high-brow material. Respectability shouldn’t come at the expense of an experience akin to walking through a haunted house. At a time when joy seems in short supply, horror should look to its past to map out its future, and make things just a tad brighter for audiences.
Backrooms
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