Today History of Guns present the short film “Drug Castle” which is also accompanied by the companion 3-track remix single, “Last Train to Drug Castle”, featuring remixes and alternate versions of the single tracks. The video follows the releases videos for the tracks “No Longer Earthbound”, “When You Don’t Matter”, and “What’s Buried (Will Rise)”.

The short film is made for one of the more experimental parts of their latest album, “Half Light”, in which they take their instruments to the beach, and experiment with different audio and emotional frequencies, “in an effort to contact beings from another world.”

Filmed, directed and edited by Howard Gardner, the short film “Drug Castle” comprises two tracks from History of Guns’ eighth album, “Half Light”: namely, “Drug Castle” and “Survive the Night”.

Producer, co-writer and keyboard player/programmer Max Rael says: “Drug Castle was the nickname given to a facility in England where they used to conduct what were often unethical, experimental, psychological procedures during the ‘60s and ‘70s. No one’s quite sure of its exact location, other than it was near the sea, and some of the sessions happened out on the beach. It was originally built for use in World War II, but no one seems to know what its original purpose was. Different psychologists and psychiatrists could effectively book it out, and then take patients or unwitting volunteers down there for however long, and do whatever they liked. There are some good stories from people who received really helpful treatment there, but it’s probably more famous for some of the awful horror stories and reports of deaths and extreme abuse. Apparently, there was very liberal use of experimental drugs and techniques, hence the nickname. One of the experimental treatments was called Frequency Therapy which involved using sonic frequencies to match or harmonise with emotional frequencies, which would cause a third frequency to be created, which caused some quite profound healing and bizarre experiences.”

“I first told Howard about the sci-fi plot I had for the album, one night after a few drinks when we were at Infest together a good few years ago. He’s been a solid, trusted and much-loved friend and collaborator on a range of projects over the years, so this seemed a perfect chance to continue our collaboration.”

Max Rael and filmmaker Howard Gardner are also collaborators in London-based experimental electronic trio, Decommissioned Forests. Gardner describes the process behind the Drug Castle film: “I listened to the tracks for the first time in a darkened room and they absolutely blew me away, so bleak and powerful was the imagery. I imagined the band all sitting around a campfire at night near the shore, playing the song while being plagued by demonic hallucinations or visions. I described this impression to the band, and they absolutely loved it, so we went from there. I’m a huge fan of David Lynch and I often solve filmmaking problems by trying to imagine what he might do. This was certainly the case with ‘Drug Castle’. Owing to the song’s length I imagined a slow-burning and ambiguous narrative with harsh lighting thrown by the fire, with slow edits and dissolves. For some of the more way-out visuals I took inspiration from Lucio Fulci (the decayed corpse-like figure) and The KLF (the trio of handmaidens sitting on the rocks). We shot it in a single evening in June, down on the Kent coast, and the band were very good-natured and cooperative the whole way – even when I asked Del to lie in the freezing cold sea and be splattered with fake blood. Max got an antique oscilloscope to work in the middle of a beach without any mains power, for which I think he deserves some sort of commendation!.”

Guitarist and co-writer, Caden Clarkson, who is both the newest addition to the group in its current iteration, and Rael’s son, says of both the recording and the video: “On ‘Drug Castle’ I had to take a different approach to what I’d normally do. I used the guitar as less of an instrument, and more of a means to create rich and somewhat haunting textures and soundscapes. I also used my Theremin to add the click beeping sounds and higher frequencies. The video recording was not at all what I had expected. When I read the script saying that Del would have to lay partially in the sea, I thought there would be no chance he’d do it, but he jumped right in and did such an amazing job of it, it was genuinely impressive to watch.”

Vocalist and co-writer, Del Alien adds: “I had not seen Howard in years! It was great to see him again. He had the video all planned out way before we got there. The last bit of the film was shot first, as it had to be in daylight, but I had to get on the beach with the freezing cold waves slightly coming up – sadly for me, I hate the cold! But to the others, great laughter was had. We misjudged the tide at one point, and I got frigging washed over! Luckily, Howard could see how bloody cold I was, and did that bit of the filming as fast as he could. And I must say, I think the end result of a very long and challenging day paid off.”

About History of Guns

Formed in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1996, the duo became frontrunners of the Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s. The band went on hiatus in 2012, returning with 2022’s album “Forever Dying In Your Eyes” before setting about finishing an electronic project they’d begun in 2008 – resulting in “Half Light”.

The starting point for this album lays in Robert Anton Wilson’s words “The future is up for grabs; it belongs to any and all who will take the risk and accept the responsibility of consciously creating the future they want.” The release contains elements of a story currently being written as a novel by Max Rael, with these 10 tracks exploring inner and outer space.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The US-based synth pop act The Mystic Underground have a brand new video out today, for the two track single “In A Darkened Room” which comes back by the / “In A Darkened Room (Jeremy Bastard Dub Mix)”. The single and video are out now via Re:Mission Entertainment.

The band’s songwriter Vladimir Valette explains the track as follows: “It’s hard to think about what songs are truly about when you write them but in the case of ‘In A Darkened Room’, it’s meant to describe the longing for belonging. The sense of feeling at home at night where anonymity is king and you can be anything you want to be.”

Here’s the video for “In A Darkened Room”

You can download the 2-track right now from Bandcamp.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Megan Bishop) Re:Mission Entertainment is set to release “DeadNakedCoveredInBlood”, from the Seattle based Horror inspired Industrial band, Dracula Party. This is the second release with the label following last year’s single,”Nightmare Things”.

“DeadNakedCoveredInBlood” will release on all digital music platforms including Bandcamp today, Friday, October. Musically it combines elements of industrial, EBM, synthesizer movie scores, and darkwave.

The follow-up to their single “Nightmare Things” (2022), and their LP “Video Wasteland” (2021), brings a hard-hitting industrial track about a twisted love story, about “opening the box” and becoming monsters together. The release also includes the new B-Side “Something Scary”.

Horror effects filled video

Starring La Petite Mort and Byron C. Miller the video for “DeadNakedCoveredInBlood” was directed and shot by Paul Morgan and edited by Byron C. Miller with special FX makeup by HexFX Industries. The “Idol” prop is by Aaron Morgan with location provided by Dan Orme Doutre.

Here’s the director’s statement from Paul Morgan, longtime collaborator with Byron on films and music: “Listening to a new Dracula Party song for the first time is like the feeling of finding a dusty VHS copy of a Horror movie you’ve only heard vague whispers about at a mom-and-pop video store. It’s like the feeling of holding that clamshell case in your hand as you walk to the counter, both terrified but excited all at the same time. It’s like how it feels to watch it with all the lights off and your face half covered for fear of what you might see, but already looking forward to telling all your friends all about it the next day. I was struck by the duality of that feeling. Terrified but excited. Off-putting but beautiful. Grotesque but sensual. There is no better song to explore this theme of contrasting feelings than “DeadNakedCoveredInBlood”.

To anchor this theme, we started with a classic horror film set up; people using a ritual to realize their deepest, darkest desires and raise a few monsters in the process. (Hellraiser being an obvious point of inspiration.) I tried to find ways to have contrasting visuals to push that theme forward. The muted world of the beginning of the video versus the vivid colors of the end. The openness of the autumn world outside versus the claustrophobic basement. The clashing vibrant colors of the final half. It’s deceptively simple but effective when combined with moody synths, rasping vocals, unhinged performances, and the increasingly frenetic editing.

I hope that this video gives you the feeling of being alone in a darkened room, your hands ready to cover your eyes the second something happens on the flickering TV…but in your heart hoping that something does happen because you can’t wait to see it.”

Byron comments this on the song and video: “When my bandmate, Chris, first sent me the demo, I knew this was something special. The themes and the words flowed out of me, resulting in a track that I think might be our most fun and in a way our most personal. While I use horror themes on the surface, at the heart this is a love story about finding your person and building your own weird world with them. I was thrilled when Paul came on board to Direct and shoot the video. We’ve been collaborating for years on music in our former band Ghosts in the Graveyard, and on many film and music video productions. Paul instantly got the theme and ran with it. We were also blessed with the participation of horror special effects makeup by the great HexFX Industries, and my co-star in the video, the amazingly talented performer, La Petite Mort. I hope people find the video and the song fun, weird, sexy, creepy. Like a night at the club mixed with a night binging horror movies in a haunted house.”

About Dracula Party

Dracula Party is Byron C. Miller (Vocals, Lyrics) and Chris Schism (Music Production). Byron has a long history of performance in music, film, and beyond. As a teen/young adult, Byron performed in local bands and was an actor in various Haunt attractions including Universal Studios Florida, Halloween Horror Nights. For 8 years (2002-2010) Byron was the co-frontman of the Industrial band, God Module. As a filmmaker, Byron directed two features (“NIGHT” and “The Anatomy of Monsters”), shorts, and a number of music videos for various bands (The Break Up, Cylab, Legion Within, etc.). Byron returned to music in 2016 as the lead singer, lyricist for the shock rock band, Ghosts
in the Graveyard. In 2019, he returned to industrial when he teamed up with Chris Longo to form Dracula Party.

Chris from his side is a veteran of the NYC hardcore punk scene, who developed a love for electronic music through darkwave, synthpop, and NY hip-hop. He hit the Seattle scene as the guitarist of the punk/deathrock band The Uncommitted, later moving to his solo dark electronic project Idoless. Chris brings a lifelong attachment to horror film and TV series scores as inspiration to Dracula Party.

You can catch the band live in Seattle, WA. On October 28 at Café Racer for the Gothic Pride Seattle’s annual Halloween party.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: This is the debut album of the Texas (USA) based formation In A Darkened Room. They previously released different singles.

Content: The main sources of inspiration aren’t that difficult to find. “Sorrow” perfectly reflects the dark mood of 80s Dark-Wave & Post-Punk. The songs are rather slow accentuating the moody side which is mainly created by guitar playing and strings.

+ + + : This is a honest debut album featuring a few noticeable tracks. I want to mention “Sleep Again” for the morose sounding strings and “Water Under The Bridge” which is a cool, last, cut featuring a noticeable guitar solo.

– – – : The songs remain pretty linear so a bit more diversity would be a true improvement for further songs.

Conclusion: I can’t say that I’ve been totally convinced but this is a sincere debut full length.

Best songs:  “Water Under The Bridge”, “Sleep Again”, “Final Vows”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/inadarkenedroomband

Listen to “Sorrows”:

About In A Darkened Room

In A Darkened Room is a goth rock/post-punk trio from San Antonio, Texas: CJ Duron (vocals, guitars), Svia Svenlava (bass), and Kandi Hardee (piano, synths). The band released several singles before completing its debut album, titled “Sorrow” on this release; the band’s own Bandcamp page and prior Side-Line coverage list the same record as “Sorrows”.

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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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The San Antonio, Texas based goth rock/post-punk trio In A Darkened Room have a new video out, “Descend”. “Descend” is the first song from the band’s debut album “Sorrows” and features a solemnly, slow cruise through a local cemetery that the band visits upon occasion for inspiration.

Frontman CJ Duron explains: “We would drive up and down the rows most likely playing Book of Love or Echo and The Bunnymen. The drive usually put me in a semi meditative state conducive for writing. I also spent 10 years of my life engraving headstones so viewing the amazing artwork and dedication these pieces have while emoting a message of peace and closure reminds me that we too have a message to share, and we should embrace it while we can.”

Here’s the video for “Descend”.

In A Darkened Room is CJ Duron (vox/guitars), Svia Svenlava (bass) and Kandi Hardee (piano/synth).

If you want to see the band live at work, here are their upcoming shows:

• March 31 with Haunt Me – Paper Tiger SATX
• May 11 with CHANT – Fuel Bar, SATX
• June 29 with Final Sound – Elysium ATX
• July 28 Dark Castle Festival – Louisiville, KY

Here’s the aforementioned “Sorrows” album.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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In 1996 the album “A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room” was released by the band Black Light District which was basically a production by Coil. The alias was one of a few assumed by them in the mid-nineties for putting out drone based music (and also a name of a song by Boyd Rice on the compilation cassette “Bethel”).

This album now gets released as being a Coil release with the title “Black Light District” and with an unreleased bonus-track. The team who worked on the material consisted of John Balance, Peter Christopherson, Drew McDowall and Danny Hyde.

You can order the album right here.

The material on this reissue was remastered by Martin Bowes (Attrition) with the bonus track being taken from the “Black Light District” recording session. Also added are Danny Hyde’s comments in the booklet.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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