Hermit Rites 006
Music and Reviews / Kalvin Ellis / Interstellar / Stephen King / "Apocalypse: 2021"
Greetings, Hermits, and welcome to the sixth ritual of Hermit Rites! This month, April of 2025, is one of the biggest months of my life. My first ever book is coming out on the 18th! And I’m turning forty on the same day or whatever. If you like werewolves getting gory, you might like The Sweep.
I was able to get a fair amount of writing done in March. I started and completed a short story called Thanatos, worked on my sci-fi novel that I’ve been writing since 2022, and started a fantasy novelette that will hopefully read more like R.A. Salvatore, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman than GRRM or Jordan. I also got to finish off an interview with a Canadian musician that will be available to read in the next Hermit Rites, and I worked on some drabble because drabble is fun, and sometimes hard to write.
As always, I listened to a ton of music. Some was new, some was new to me, some was just the everyday classics I like reaching for due to comfort and because My Dying Bride are one of the best bands to ever exist. Keep in mind that releases in italics are Canadian bands. Is this list a lot of Fiadh Productions released or adjacent? Fuck yeah. Why? Because Fiadh and it’s core group of people are a good label and good people. Some of these people are becoming part of my family, to be quite honest, and I know none of them in real life. But even more importantly it’s fucking killer music and I know I don’t have to worry about any of it being sketchy; Fiadh is an antifacist, woman owned, and vegan record label.
My reading has gone down the shitter in March. I finished reading Finders Keepers and as a result finished the review that I started in Hermit Rites 005. I also finished reading Bury My Body Somewhere Nice and wrote the review for that as well. The sad thing is that I didn’t start reading my March book until like the 27th, meaning there’s no review for End of Watch here—you’ll have to wait a few weeks. I am, on March 31st, just a tad more than halfway through, but will probably crush at least another hundred pages today. Hopefully I can read three books in April, two for sure, to catch up to where I want to be for my 2025 reading goals.
March’s Music and Reviews
1. Junius - The Martyrdom of a Catastrophist (x2) [2009] [BC] [Post Rock/Post Metal]
This is one of those albums that I’m fairly certain will be on every list of music I listen to in a month. I saw Junius live once and bought Martyrdom on CD. They were opening for Alcest and Enslaved at the Starlite Room. That was the show I had to leave before Enslaved because I was literally falling asleep on my feet, so that sucked, but Junius have stuck with me far more than either of the other two bands. There is such a wonderful atmosphere of this album, so heavy but not oppressively so. It’s a strange weight that lifts me up. Lyrically this is also one of my favourite albums, with songs of love and loss and wanting to change the world for the better. It’s a concept album, based on the life of Immanuel Velikovsky, who has had his work widely panned by every scientist worth their salt. His Wikipedia entry, linked above, is awesome if you have several hours to devote to a scientific and pseudoscientific wormhole.
2. An Autumn For Crippled Children - Portugal EP [2015] [BC] [Post Black]
3. Nightshade - Belladonna [2023] [BC] [Cozy Synth]
4. In Flames - Foregone [2023] [BC] [Melodic Death/Metalcore]
5. Howling Fjord - Utgarde Keep [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Sylfvrcore]
6. Woodland Meditation - I (X2) [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
7. Woodland Meditation - II [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
8. Woodland Meditation - III [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
9. Woodland Meditation - Stillness [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
10. Dark Cascadian Forests - The Gate (x2) [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
11. Forsaken Keep - A Decrepit Tower In The Distance [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
12. Forsaken Keep - Kurald Galain [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
13, Forsaken Keep - Secrets of the Starlit Citadel [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fantasy Synth/Frothcore]
14. Hideous Gomphidious - Spore Sorcery [2020] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Fungal Synth/Evergreencore]
15. Year of the Cobra - Year of the Cobra [2025] [BC] [Stoner/Doom]
16. Haunt - If Icarus Could Fly [2020] [BC] [Heavy Metal]
17. Sacred Noose - Vanishing Spires [2025] [BC] [Blackened Death]
18. Inexistence - The Enchanted Waterfall [2024] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth]
19. Gloomlurker/Witch’s Amulet - Ballads from the Bannered Mare [2024] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth/Ziricore]
20. Venus-426 - J.O.N.E.S./The Aftermath (x2) [2023] [BC] [Noise/Wendycore]
21. Alkilith - Beneath The Fells I-III [2022] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth]
22. Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy [2011] [BC] [Progressive Metal]
23. Iravu - A Fate Worse than Home (x2) [2023] [BC] [Blackened Death]
24. Antzaat - The Black Hand of the Father [2017] [BC] [Melodic Black]
25. Antzaat - For You Men Who Gaze Into The Sun [2020] [BC] [Melodic Black]
26. Altars of Grief - Iris [2018] [BC] [Blackend Doom/Damiencore]
27. Altars of Grief - This Shameful Burden [2014] [BC] [Blackened Doom/Damiencore]
28. Ancient VVisdom - A Godlike Inferno (x4) [2012] [BC] [Occult Rock]
29. Blitzar IV - Ayla [2023] [BC] [Atmospheric Black]
30. My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding [2024] [BC] [Gothic Doom]
31. Hircine - A Crown of Wildflowers (x3) [2025] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth/Damiencore]
32. Dream Chalice - Forlorn Paths Through Forgotten Dreams [2023] [BC] [Dream Synth/Dungeon Synth/Frothcore]
33. Hircine/Altar of Moss - The Long Night (Split) [2024] [BC] [Winter Synth/Damiencore/Dungeon Synth]
34. Weald and Woe - For the Good of the Realm [2023] [BC] [Castle Metal]
35. My Dying Bride - A Line of Deathless Kings (x3) [2012] [BC] [Gothic Doom]
36. My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the World (x2) [1999] [BC] [Death Doom]
37. Idolatry - Pyrrhic [2023] [BC] [Black Metal]
38. Idolatry - In Nomine Mortis [2019] [BC] [Black Metal]
39. Katatonia - Dead End Kings [2012] [BC] [Dark Rock/Gothic Metal]
40. Katatonia - Sky Void of Stars [2023] [BC] [Dark Rock/Gothic Metal]
41. Paradise Lost - Faith Divides Us—Death Unites Us [2009] [BC] [Gothic Metal]
42. An Autumn for Crippled Children - Only The Ocean Knows [2012] [BC] [Post Black]
43. An Autumn for Crippled Children - Everything [2011] [BC] [Post Black]
44. Begrime Exemious - Rotting in the Aftermath [2022] [BC] [Death Metal]
45. Northwest Passage - The Future Past [2025] [BC] [Ambient/Dungeon Synth/Willowcore]
46. Ancient VVisdom - 33 (x4) [2017] [BC] [Occult Rock]
47. Halizth - Halizth (x3) [2025] [BC] [Cosmic Black/Sylfvrcore]
48. The Pub Mouse - Midnight at the Mitre [2025] [BC] [Comfy Synth]
49. Sacred Noose - Renounce the Flesh [2023] [BC] [Blackened Death]
50. Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance (x2) [2006] [BC] [Dark Rock/Gothic Metal]
51. Thangorodrim - Towers of the Teeth [2016] [BC] [Dungeon Synth/Fiefcore]
52. Feijoa Tree - A Day in the Life [2025] [BC] [Cozy Synth/Dungeon Synth/Ziricore]
This album is set during a single day in the life of a herd of deer and conveys their feelings and adventures. It is an emotive record, as like 98% of synth is, and it’s definitely comfy synth, but there are elements of danger and sadness. After all, a pack of wolves and deforestation are realities that deer face daily.Like everything Ziri touches, this is fantastic.
53. Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra [2010] [CD] [Symphonic Black]
54. Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage [2011] [CD] [Atmospheric Black]
55. Dark Tranquillity - Fiction [2007] [BC] [Melodic Death]
56. Tempestarii - Temple of Skies [2017] [CD] [Atmospheric Black]
57. Alkillith - Dracolich of The Gray Waste [2022] [BC] [Dungeon Synth]
58. Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite (x2) [2023] [BC] [Technical Deathgrind]
59. Darkthrone - Ravishing Grimness [1999] [CD] [Black Metal]
60. Voyvoda - Autochthonous [2023] [BC] [Coldwave/Post Punk]
61. Voyvoda - Confessions of a Macedonian Bandit [2020] [BC] [Coldwave/Post Punk]
62. The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir - Demo I: Folklore (x3) [2025] [BC] [Atmospheric Black]
63. Morke - Forged in Steel and Love [2024] [BC] [Castle Metal]
64. Sentenced - The Funeral Album [2005] [BC] [Gothic Metal]
65. Griftegard - Solemn. Sacred. Severe. [2009] [BC] [Doom Metal]
66. My Dying Bride - The Manuscript EP [2013] [BC] [Gothic Doom]
67. Woe - A Violent Dread EP [2019] [BC] [Black Metal]
68. Wintersleep - Wintersleep [2003] [BC] [Indie Rock]
69. Katatonia - Brave Murder Day [1996] [BC] [Death Doom]
70. Wintersleep - New Inheritors [2010] [BC] [Indie Rock]
71. Wintersleep - Hello Hum [2012] [BC] [Indie Rock]
72. Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down [2001] [BC] [Gothic Metal]
73. All the Cold/Fornicatus/Black Hate/Happy Days - Children of Failure (Split) [2009] [CD] [DSBM]
74. Ecologist - Glaciares: Premonición de los fragmentos del deshielo inminente [2024] [BC] [Atmospheric Black]
75. Willow Tea - A Time Of Renewal [2025] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth/Willowcore]
76. Ancient VVisdom - Deathlike [2013] [BC] [Occult Rock]
77. Fogweaver - Vedurnan [2020] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth/Evergreencore]
78. My Dying Bride - Feel the Misery [2015] [BC] [Gothic Doom]
79. Various Artists - Knuckletracks XLIII [2002] [CD] [Various Metals]
80. Various Artists - Knuckletracks XLIV [2002] [CD] [Various Metals]
81. Moonspell - The Butterfly Effect [1999] [CS] [Gothic Metal]
82. The Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestite [2012?] [CS] [Ambient]
83. Scythra - Forever Unclean (x2) [2018] [BC] [Death Metal]
84. Hot Dog Cart - ~* boy dinner *~ [2025] [BC] [Comfy Synth/Food Synth]
85. Toad Blood/Unearthly Gasp - Alliance of Poison Skin and Noble Fur [2023] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth]
86. Genital Shame/Lust Hag - Split (x2) [2025] [BC] [Black Metal]
87. Warlocks of Mordor - Caliginous Fortress of Woe [2025] [BC] [Atmospheric Black]
88. Vandal Moon - Black Kiss [2020] [BC] [Goth/Coldwave/Post Punk]
89. Hulder - Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasant [2021] BC] [Atmospheric Black]
90. Craft - White Noise and Black Metal [2018] [BC] [Black Metal]
91. Borknagar - Universal [2012] [BC] [Progressive Black]
92. Yfel - Beneath The Mountain’s Vigil [2023] [BC] [Atmospheric Black]
93. Morke - We Are the River [2024] [BC] [Atmospheric Black]
94. Various Artists - Knuckletracks XLV [2002] [CD] [Various Metals]
95. Various Artists - Knuckletracks XLVI [2002] [CD] [Various Metals]
96. Sacred Noose - Renounce the Flesh [2023] [BC] [Blackened Death]
97. Striborg - Through The Melancholy Tunnel of Despair [2023] [BC] [DSBM]
98. Dawn Treader - Bloom and Decay [2024] [BC] [Post Black]
99. Nightmare Effigy/Marrow of Man - Decimation of the Spirit (Split) [2025] [BC] [Black Metal]
100. Snawfuss - The Six-Petal Rosette [2024] [BC] [Fantasy Synth/Dungeon Synth]
101. Mourning Mist - Amen (x2) [2020] [BC] [Doom Metal]
102. The Vision Bleak - Songs of Good Taste [2004] [BC] [Gothic Metal]
103. Various Artists - Knuckletracks XLVII [2002] [CD] [Various Metals]
104. Cocteau Twins - Victorialand (x2) [1986] [CD] [Dream Pop/Shoegaze]
105. Failure - Fantastic Planet [1996] [CD] [Alternative]
106. An Crom Cruach - Leath-adhairce [2024] [BC] [Folk]
107. Ancient Pyres - Sous la férule des météores [2025] [BC] [Dungeon Doom/Sylfvrcore]
108. Da Captain Trips - Maths of the Elements [2022] [BC] [Psychedelic Rock/Doom]
109. In Flames - Subterranean [1995] [CD] [Melodic Death]
110. In Flames - Whoracle [1997] [CD] [Melodic Death]
111. Leng Tch’e - Marasmus [2007] [CD] [Grindcore/Razorgrind]
112. Sparklehorse - Bird Machine [2023] [BC] [Alternative]
113. Lucerne Hammer - Demo (x3) [2025] [BC] [Black Metal/Timcore]
114. Willow Tales - Songs For The Friends We Made Along The Way [2024] [BC] [Comfy Synth/Willowcore]
115. Arctos - A Spire Silent (x2) [2017] [BC] [Melodic Black Metal]
116. Skymir - Blood Moon Rising [2016] [CD] [Melodic Death/Folk]
117. Skymir - Haunted Saloon [2012] [CD] [Melodic Death/Folk]
118. Death - Symbolic [1995] [CD] [Death Metal]
119. Atlantic - Torrents [2022] [BC] [Atmospheric/Post Black]
120. Atlantic - Black Sands [2024] [BC] [Atmospheric/Post Black]
121. Creek Moss - Herald of Hvrall [2024] [BC] [Fantasy Synth]
Kalvin Ellis and I have followed each other on Instagram and other places for awhile, gradually becoming friends. He wrote the books In the Hills Above the Grist Mill and it’s sequel In the Grave Where the Bones Are Still Wet, both of which lit Bookstagram’s collective asses on fire. When Kalvin made a post about having ARC readers for his upcoming short story collection awhile back, I said I’d be honoured. He sent me the ebook version of Bury My Body Somewhere Nice, and I kinda fucked it a bit and took too long to read it. It was my goal to have a review of it for Hermit Rites 005 because I thought it was coming out in March. Nope. It’s out on April 4th, just a few days from now, so I didn’t completely fuck it. So, without further ado, my unintelligible thoughts on these five short spooky tales:
Holy fuck this shit rules.
That’s it, that’s the review. I could go into detail like how “Scissors: A Love Story” sets up the whole book as a “whoa okay, shit’s not just horror, but weird fiction as well”. Or I could say the second story, “Soft Chewy Center”, takes that set-up and throws a splash of sci-fi into the mix with an alternating point of view that gradually ramps up the horror to an ohmyfuckinggod level at the end. And maybe I can say that “Atomic Despair” takes the horror/weird fiction/sci-fi to a post-apocalyptic gas station and becomes a love and revenge tale. Or the story that the book derives it’s title from, “Bury My Body Somewhere Nice” is “To Catch A Predator” with schizophrenia and a lot of blood and some genuine, beautifully written romance. Perhaps, even, I could say the final story in the book, “In the Dark We Sin” could be filmed and re-titled as a Saw sequel and I’m fairly certain I want to try to straight up rip it off (which I already told Kalvin, so don’t worry, if I do it I think we’re cool—I just have to make sure my version isn’t as good as his). But I’m not going to go into details, I’m not going to say all that. I’m just going to go with my original review:
Holy fuck, this shit rules.
Get a copy from Kalvin Ellis’s website.
Interstellar takes place in our future, mid-21st century roughly, and it’s grim. Crops are dying thanks in part to the Blight but also because when you only grow one crop for years in a row your land will eventually go to shit. Oxygen levels are depleting, and the human race is walking towards its death bed. Everything is dust. Shit’s fucked.
Due to a gravitational anomaly occurring on his farm, Cooper and his daughter Murph accidentally find what is left of NASA, headed by Professor Brand. Cooper, who used to be a test pilot for NASA before his sub-orbital ship crashed is then roped into flying a spaceship from Earth to Saturn, where almost fifty years ago they found a wormhole to another galaxy. He travels with a pair of robots and a trio of human scientists, one of which is the daughter of Professor Brand. The goal is to colonize one of the planets they found orbiting a supermassive black hole on the other side of the wormhole. The problem with such a location is not just that it takes a couple years to get to Saturn, but once around the black hole time dilation kicks in: one hour on the planets they investigate is equal to seven years on Earth. Meanwhile back home, Cooper’s son finds a wife, has a family, and is taking care of the farm. Murph is growing up and working with NASA to help bring her dad back, and to send the rest of humanity through the wormhole.
Fun space adventures are had and people die and crazy stuff happens, but all of it is based on hard science and real life, making this one of my favourite movies for that very reason. Despite it being in the future, the technology is not completely all futuristic. Buttons and switches and analogue flight methods are beside cryosleep chambers and cool shit like that. The special effects are mostly practical, so even though Interstellar is a decade old it still looks fantastic. Who would have thought that shooting on real film in real locations with real humans in real space suits makes shit look real?
Stephen King’s Finder’s Keepers does not directly follow Mr. Mercedes, instead taking a four year break between the books, while also sometimes taking place in the 1970’s.
World renowned author John Rothstein is murdered, and his safe raided. Sure, the twenty grand in it is awesome, but even more important to Morris Bellamy, the murderer, is the Moleskine notebooks with the money. Everything is tossed into a trunk and buried to be grabbed a later date when the heat has cooled. Unfortunately for Morris, he is caught for a different crime and is thrown in jail for life.
Years later, Pete Saubers finds the trunk after the tree it was under gets blown over. His family is currently in major financial problems after his father was run over by some asshole in a Mercedes at a job fair, and divorce seems to be looming, so Pete begins to mail the money incrementally and secretly to his family. Until it runs out. Then Pete decides to try and sell the Moleskine notebooks full of the unpublished writings of John Rothstein, and things begin to get tricky. The man he tries to sell them to is the same man who told Morris to bury them all those years ago, and he begins to try to blackmail Pete.
The inconvenience of Morris Bellamy being granted parole at this time makes everything go sideways for everyone, because Morris is back in town and wants the notebooks, and is willing to kill to get them.
Behind all of this is the story of Brady Hartsfield, the Mercedes Killer. He’s awakened from his coma and is locked away, one step from being a complete vegetable, but Bill Hodges still visits him every so often, and strange things seem to happen around him. Framed photos fall over. Taps turn on with no one near them. And nurses kill themselves.
Naturally this is written in the same tone as most Stephen King novels, and the way he writes and the way my brain works makes it so I’m right there. I see, hear, and smell the heads exploding under car tires; I watch hungover men puke in jail cells; I’m a fly on the wall when big brothers worry about their little sisters and when crooked book dealers and freshly released ex-cons argue. This is also written in such a way that if by chance you did not grab Mr. Mercedes first, it is not that big of a deal. There is enough backstory given that helps to recap that novel while leaving enough details out to keep you curious enough to grab it.
In all, I really liked Finders Keepers. It’s a fast moving crime novel with some deadly twists that makes you want to turn the pages, while still being a Stephen King novel.
Flash Fiction I - Apocalypse: 2021
The sun was setting, finally. I was tired of having my balcony baked by the sun, and my AC was out. Cool temperatures were all I craved. I sat in my white plastic lawn chair and waited for these said cool temperatures to creep over the warm pavement of an overcrowded world.
By the time I was two root beers and three joints into the night it was time to go to bed. The wind had picked up, whipping the smell of thousands of sweaty bodies up and around my apartment building. It was a disgusting smell. It was a smell that I almost had gotten used to before the other smell took over.
The cool temperatures had yet to come, and in some places they never would.
When I awoke the next morning the city was strangely quiet. I opened my eyes and felt a hush descend upon me. Without opening my curtains I knew something had happened. Something had finally Gone Wrong. I grabbed my iPad and opened Chrome, my eyes squinting against the sudden brilliance. The top news was the same as all the headlines and links below: nuclear winter was blowing its winds upon Asian soil. I didn’t click anything, just closed the app, left my bedroom, and sat on my chesterfield to light a rare early-morning joint.
My cat oozed out of the bedroom like a xenomorph. He blinked at the weed then jumped onto the kitchen cupboards and watched me.
I took a walk down the street, my mask billowing out and sucking in with every overheated breath I had. The twenty first century was supposed to be full of promise and new hope and instead it’s full of killer viruses, rapist Presidents, and bad Star Wars movies.
I arrived at my destination after a nearly half hour trek, and in that time I barely saw a single person. A few vehicles up and down the street and a food delivery guy in a rough sounding Toyota were the only indications that I was not the Last Man on Earth. I bought some more weed, then walked the opposite way back home, seeing almost no one. I grabbed a copy of the Sun on the way and read more headlines while slowly meandering, somehow successfully smoking, reading, and locomoting.
The virus holding the world by its balls was obviously a hoax, and the dead were just part of some conspiracy, and people without masks were protesting outside of the White House. Some patriots drove through the protest with a large truck, killing twelve protesters and a cop. When the driver hauled his fat white ass out of the truck they cuffed and arrested him without incident. When his black brother-in-law got out of the passenger seat, his hands in the air, he was riddled with bullets. The driver died from the virus twelve hours later, having contracted it from the crowd. He was still the lucky one; his brother-in-law’s body was still slumped on his ass on the asphalt against the open door of the truck.
(Author’s Note: I wrote this, as the title suggests, in 2021, from February 22 to April 19 to be specific. It is essentially exactly what happened one day when I went walking to buy some weed. I find it fucked up that some of this shit is actually still happening. I chose to post this in a very raw state that needs editing, just for funsies, to keep it as a flash fiction piece.)
Hahahaha, I had to cine back and read this as I didn't have the chance before. Thank you so much, my friend! What a great review!!