When the words “let’s wrap up” are spoken at a rock show, they usually signify the end of the performing band’s set. For Canadian theatrical rock music legend Nash the Slash, however, it’s a call to arms. It’s time to obscure his visage with white surgical bandages, don his tux and top hat, shoulder his electric violin and deliver an unmistakable message by way of an urgent sonic assault:  “You Are Not Safe Here”.

Any great horror film with a foundation built on suspense from the ground up can make viewers cringe before the great reveal. The fear of the unknown is always much scarier than actually seeing what lurks in the depths of the black, and the anticipation of something bigger than we imagined is what we fear—and also look forward to. The same can be said about haunting melodies, especially in the industrial vein. Yet while Van Richter Records’ HELLFIRE compilation CD starts with an ambient buildup that piqued this writer’s interest from the get-go and promises so much more, it immediately falls flat.

I had never heard of the German band The Other before I set out to review them, so I had no idea what to expect. My first impression? Total shock! Being a die-hard metalhead, the music I prefer must have balls. And NEW BLOOD (out August 30 in North America from Steamhammer/SPV) will have your fangs on point and blood boiling.

Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie seem like they could be family: two generations of macabre musical showmen with a fondness for heavy riffs and theatrical bombast. Cooper has even gone so far as to call Zombie his “grandson” in interviews, although the latter’s brand of fun B-movie bluster has never really lashed concerned parents into a froth of moral outrage the way Cooper’s subversive act and lyrics did during his heyday.

If you’re a fan of actor Bill Moseley—and judging by his recently maxed-out Facebook page, many people are—you’re no doubt savvy to the fact that the rogues’ gallery of wingnuts he’s played onscreen are very closely aligned to the man’s eccentric personality. Beginning with his self-scalp-eating cannibal kook in Tobe Hooper’s TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 and continuing through his portrayal of Otis in Rob Zombie’s HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, Moseley has become iconic in the genre, working steadily in features, showing up on the con circuit and generally forging a legacy as a sort of trailer-trash kin to Vincent Price.

One of the most distinctive albums of the year, WRETCHED. FILTHY. UGLY. combines the jittery, hyperactive feel of acoustic folk rock and the trashiness of horror movies. The band behind it, Harley Poe, fabricates a unique sound all its own.

After reading some of the loudmouth insane rants of vocalist Mike Abominator, I knew I had to hear Gravehill. This band will leave you in need of a straitjacket, since it’s impossible to listen to them without going absolutely insane!