Dark Book Review: Nod

Dark Book Review: Nod

Review written by Casey Douglass

As a sufferer of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with sleep. The hate part is that it no longer refreshes me as it used to, the love aspect comes from it sucking eight or more hours out of my day, hours that I’d have no idea what to do with, and bugger all energy to do it with. When browsing the Kindle Store a week ago, I saw that Adrian Barnes’ Nod was on offer for 99p. I read the blurb (below) and promptly bought it.

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no-one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no-one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand can still sleep, and they've all shared the same golden dream. A handful of children still sleep as well, but what they're dreaming remains a mystery. After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. One couple experience a lifetime in a week as he continues to sleep, she begins to disintegrate before him, and the new world swallows the old one whole...

Paul is a lover of words, an author and etymological explorer who likes nothing more than to spend time alone away from most other people, studiously writing and quietly living his life. His latest project is a book about the history of sidetracked words, words that have seen their use changed or forgotten. He thinks about calling it Nod in reference to the biblical tale of Cain being sent there when he was expelled from Adam’s domain. He lives with his partner Tanya, and they carve out the best life they can. Then the world stops sleeping, and the tiny differences between them soon open up into breezy gulfs, as she succumbs to madness from lack of sleep and he has to watch it happen.

I was impressed with the way Nod showed the world going to hell, when something as everyday as sleep is taken out of the equation. From the experts on TV spouting guesses and opinions as fact (hmm, wonder what that reminds me of), to humanities chimp-mind emerging as panic takes over, it all seems very feasible. People turn on each other, power and water supply goes the way of the dodo, and psychopaths rule. The sleeper vs non-sleeper thing also gives rise to some great detail, such as people who sleep having to pretend that they can’t, or risk being attacked. This is a situation Paul soon finds himself in, Tanya having to use make-up to blacken the bags under his eyes.

Alongside the scenes of society dozily tearing itself to shreds, there is all the weirdness that goes along with it, particularly in relation to Paul’s book Nod. Let me put it this way, the wrong person sees it and three realities end up colliding, the remembered “normal” reality, the current sleep-deprived, end of the world one, and the reality of Nod and its disciples. Paul, understandably, finds his mind flitting between all three, particularly when he is running at the edge of exhaustion.

There is more to the narrative than I’ve revealed above but I really wanted to save some things for the reader to discover if they decide to read Nod (the real book, not Paul’s inadvertent world-builder). It was a supremely easy read, the more trippy/reality-bending elements not really slowing things down or making me pause to scratch my head. If you are a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, maybe someone who enjoys the kind where the humans are the biggest threat rather than zombies, some kind of plague, or whatever, Nod might just be the book for you. I give Nod 4/5, it was a very enjoyable read and it’s a book I’d happily recommend.

Nod Book Cover © Copyright Titan Books

Book Title: Nod

Author: Adrian Barnes

Publisher: Titan Books

ISBN: 9781783298228

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Dark Film Review: Agatha (2016)

Dark Film Review: Agatha (2016)

Review written by Casey Douglass

Much as short stories strive to tell something interesting in a shorter period than a novel, the task of creating a short film sees the luxury of time thrown out of the window and the creator having to effectively condense key information and emotion into minutes rather than hours. Horror writer and director Timothy Vandenburg has managed to do just this with his 8 minute short horror film Agatha, which debuted at Screamfest a few months ago. I was kindly given the chance to watch it myself, and you can find my thoughts about the film below.

The film description is as follows:

The orphan train comes daily, spilling hundreds of children onto the streets of Pennsylvania in the late 1800’s. Desperate and alone, the penniless 7 year old Sophie, entrusts an older woman who hires her to bring food each night to someone living in her attic. There is just one rule: Do not pass the serving table….EVER. As time passes, the child’s curiosity grows bold; drawing her closer to discovering the truth behind the prisoner.

The first thing that impressed me with Agatha was the soundtrack. Horror films often have soundtracks that appeal to me, and this is probably the reason why, alongside heavy metal, the dark ambient genre is a staple of mine. The opening screens of Agatha feature some truly ominous swells of dark sound design, the kind that actually deepens the scene rather than sounding like something ill-fitting and superfluous. While I’m on the topic of sound in general, Agatha has a genuinely succulent sound-scheme, creaking stairs and toothy crunching sounds all adding heft to the events unfolding in the narrative. There is also some ungodly singing, which is genuinely very creepy.

There is little dialogue in Agatha, and what there is comes quickly after the film’s start as Sophie is questioned, and then lectured, by the woman who is about to employ her. The job is to carry food to the room at the top of the stairs, place it on the table, and leave. This is where the rules are laid down: The order not to speak, not to make a sound, and not to pass the serving table. I’ll admit I had mental visions of the rules being laid down in Gremlins at this point, but only because that is such a “go to” film when you might think about rules and cinema. It definitely left me curious to see what might happen if the rules were broken. A plate of meat is duly placed in Sophie’s hand and her journey to the top of the house begins, accompanied by the aforementioned lovely creaking stairs. When she enters the top room, a wheezing figure is seen laying on a bed behind the serving table, the one that must not be passed. Sophie leaves the food and exits the room, and it is after this that we see that the figure is chained. To say much more would tempt the gods of spoilerville, but suffice it to say that it’s a chore that she carries out again and again, until the film reaches its grim conclusion.

Any gaps in the narrative left by the absence of speech are artfully filled by visual storytelling cues that linger in shot at various intervals in the film. While being a short film no doubt increases the necessity for this kind of storytelling, it is used in Agatha to inform, hint at time passing and provide emotional flavour to the film’s conclusion. It also leaves some questions unanswered, leaving you wondering why this is all happening and who these people really are. Agatha also managed to subvert my expectations on a couple of occasions which also left me appreciating the direction that it had taken.

Agatha is now beginning its fest journey, and efforts are also afoot to turn it in a feature length film. If the feature length version is any bit as interesting and well designed as the short, I very much look forward to seeing it, and I recommend that anyone who finds themselves with the chance to view Agatha in the coming months to take it, it is 8 minutes well spent. I give Agatha 5/5.

Fangoria was exclusively given the trailer for Agatha which is something you can watch from their YouTube channel below:

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Trucking Along With Depression: Why I Find American Truck Simulator to be a Valuable Tool

Trucking Along With Depression: Why I Find American Truck Simulator to be a Valuable Tool

Written by Casey Douglass

The concept of space is an important one. Whether physical or mental, without space around the things that we perceive, think or feel, we lose sight of the complete picture. The glass that is always proverbially half-full or half-empty is actually always full; the air sitting in the water-free part is often overlooked. When someone is feeling depressed or struggling with their mental health, a feeling of space or distance can sometimes be helpful, as being too close to something is also not a great way to see the big picture. What has all of this got to do with playing American Truck Simulator? I’ll try to explain.

SCS Software’s American Truck Simulator is a game that puts the player behind the wheel of a truck, gives them a slice of America to travel through, and a list of possible jobs to take on. I know next to nothing about trucks, American or otherwise, and I have no desire to become a truck driver. I don’t even particularly like to travel, except in the realms of my imagination, or the occasional trip to the shops (Not sure if I’ve ever been to any imaginary shops). So why in the world do I find myself regularly driving a big rig in a game that, on the surface, I probably shouldn’t enjoy. The simple answer is space. The more complex answer is space, the correct mixture of tension and relaxation, and the minutiae of driving.

Expanded horizons.

Let’s start with space. Whether moving around in the real world, or some digital representation of it, the feeling of leaving home and going out into areas that you don’t control is a different mental experience to staying inside, surrounded by your own belongings. When we leave our homely surroundings, our thoughts will, to some degree, focus on where we are and what we are doing. I say to some degree because if you have a mental illness, a good proportion of your thoughts will still quite likely be ensnared in your awareness of self, or any of those worries and fears that seem to follow you around wherever you might go. American Truck Simulator gives a fairly good impression of what it’s like when moving from one place to another, seeing a new town or city loom on the horizon as the old one fades in the rear-view mirror. This helps me feel a sense of space.

Driving into the Sun.

Another way that the game serves up a dose of space is in its day and night cycle. Anyone that has spent too much time grappling with their own inner-states usually tends to lose the awareness that thoughts, moods and feelings come and go quite naturally, given enough space and time. Anger at the knock of the postman waking you up soon diminishes when he puts that parcel you’ve been waiting for in your hands. When you are trapped in your more upsetting moods and feelings, it’s easy to lose this sense of things ebbing and flowing (Practising mindfulness is very useful here, and is also quite useful in general). As far as ATS, driving along with the setting sun in your mirror, the sky ahead darkening and the cars driving past you lighting their way with headlights... it just gives a feeling of moving on, of things progressing. There is also something quite lovely about driving through the night and witnessing the sun begin to rise, the golden hues of everything giving eyes that are used to darkness and headlights something to feast on again. I personally find this invaluable when I’m at my lowest, and ATS serves up this feeling with a dependable regularity. 

Traffic and red lights at twilight.

The next aspect that I want to talk about is the mixture of tension and relaxation. This concept seems integral to so much in life, whether it’s the contraction and relaxation of your heart beating comfortably in your chest, or your concentration being held firmly by a task for a duration of time before you let go and relax with a coffee-break. This seems to be the pattern for a well-balanced life well lived. Once again, if you suffer with anxiety, depression, or are undergoing a particularly trying time, your period of tension might stretch on and on, your body and mind hardening around the issues that brought it on, eventually leaving you unable to unwind or relax to any great degree. American Truck Simulator, by way of approximating the act of driving, provides a framework in which you can start to feel this tension/relaxation process, even if it’s only in the context of a game. Once felt in this more minor way, it sometimes leads to the loosening of other emotional or mental sticking points, as if the mind just needed a way to remember what letting go feels like. As an example, driving your truck through the desert on long, lonely roads is fine... for awhile. Just as you start to feel a little bored with it, you will likely come to a large city, somewhere where you need to be more “on your game”. The comfortably sparse roads are soon replaced with busy junctions, more road users and traffic lights. There will be many periods where you will be held up by red lights, queues and slow speed limits. Ah Las Vegas, what a pain in the arse you can be, with your many lanes and streets with traffic light after traffic light. Just as you begin to feel a bit annoyed, you are away, free, out in the wider countryside again, and can let go a little bit more. This is how the game provides tension and relaxation, and it is pretty low level, which is about right if you aren’t feeling your best. Other games provide tension and relaxation too of course, but trying to evade the Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation provides a far higher level of tension than accidentally bumping a pavement in ATS.

Rainy Vegas.

Finally, we get to the minutiae of driving, which also straddles the tension and relaxation section above. In American Truck Simulator, you have the rules of the U.S roads to follow, along with other actions that make driving... well, driving. In the course of your travels, you must obey speed-limits, indicate when changing lanes, use your headlights at night (and reduce high beams when other traffic approaches), and other things like turning your wipers on when it starts to rain. You also have the technicalities of managing your rest periods, fuel levels and how you can squeeze a long trailer around certain intersections without clipping anyone. To some people, this might sound like a pain, but to someone looking for gentle diversion, I find that there is just enough going on to keep my mind focussed on what I’m doing in the game, rather than having too much free time to ruminate or reflect too much on how I’m feeling. A counter to this, for me at least, is Candy Crush Saga. I’ve recently taken up playing it again on Facebook and it’s fine, as far as games like that go, but even though it’s puzzle based, I find myself with plenty of time to ruminate and feel like crap as I force the sweets to mate with each other and disappear in puffs of colour. No doubt it’s a very personal and subjective thing when it comes to how an individual game affects someone, but as far as keeping me gently attentive, ATS wins again. 

A nice drive by the beach.

We’ve reached the end of my little ramble around the topic of why I think American Truck Simulator is my perfect depression game. You don’t need to be depressed to play it of course, but in the context of how I’ve been feeling lately, I just wanted to think about and share why it seems quite useful for me. I don’t mean to present it as a cure or treatment, but as one enjoyable tool that fills a gap for me when other games seem overwhelming, or my energy levels are low. A twenty minute digital delivery job that takes in some simulated scenery and maybe gives some experience of the day-night cycle is a pleasing buffer between what ails me and the stresses of the things I am trying to do in other areas of my life. If you like the sound of American Truck Simulator, be sure to check it out here. It’s only £14.99 too, so it shouldn’t break the bank.

If you are suffering with any form of mental illness and have yet to seek help, please do, there are plenty of places out there that can and will help, from doctors to other organisations. 

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Dark Music Review – Nyarlathotep

Dark Music Review – Nyarlathotep

Review Written By Casey Douglass

A 190 minute dark soundscape album recorded by 25 ambient artists to pay tribute to H.P. Lovecraft.

Field recordings from the deepest dark corners of 4 continents. Dusty tapes out of forgotten archives. Strings through crackling amplifiers and distorted drone combine into a sea of pitch black.

Nyarlathotep is a manipulative being in the Lovecraftian Mythos. Unlike Cthulhu, or Azathoth, he delights in cruelty and deception. Causing madness is more important than destruction to him. Smell the burning embers as you kneel outside the sunken temple before Nyarlathotep. Feel the raspy touch of the faceless pharaoh as he leads you to the ancient Pyramid. Hear his inhuman summoning call to gods beyond reality.

Ah Mr Lovecraft, where would the world be without your own particular brand of creeping horror? Probably still in the current state it currently resides, but with less tentacles I guess. As always, anything that takes Lovecraft’s creations as inspiration, be it audio, video or game, instantly has my interest. When it comes down to music however, it just might be one of the most visceral ways of creating that sense of the eldritch that Lovecraft himself so excelled at. Nyarlathotep is a dark ambient album that uses the creative juices of no less than 25 ambient artists, working and bouncing sound off each other, going ever deeper into what Nyarlathotep might sound like or embody.

Nyarlathotep consists of 3 tracks, all around an hour long, give or take five or ten minutes here and there. For the most part, each track is a quieter visit to the dark ambient genre; plenty of echoing notes and deep rumblings that, while prominent, don’t particularly loom with any great threat or menace. I guess what I'm saying is that it is a pretty slow burner, the languid strings and electronic creakings and trills creating an undeniably dark space, but one in which you can let the echoes carry you away, rather than anything too intense.

That is quite a simplistic view and doesn't quite take into account the host of other sounds and tempos that emerge as you make your way through the tracks. There is a variety of chant-like vocals, some deep and satanic, others high and angelic. Static and distortion play their parts too; a static-fuzzy sound becoming a beat at one point, or later dancing around the soundscape like some digital insect fluttering its wings. Oh and there are chimes and bells and other metallic sounds, along with distant thumps and shufflings, I mustn't forget the shufflings.

Highlights for me were the distorted lightening strikes that emerge about eleven minutes into track two, and a bit later in the same track, the dark soundscape that features the sounds of someone breathing as they seem to be exploring wherever they have found themselves. I also enjoyed the metallic clattering that begins track three, a harsh electro-drone rising, soon to be joined by voices that either sound pleading or worshipping.

I enjoyed the time I spent listening to Nyarlathotep, although for me, there is a tentacled beast in the room that I haven’t addressed yet, and that is a previous Cryo Chamber Collaboration that goes by the name of Cthulhu. Cthulhu really blew me away, I think maybe because the soundscapes were more active. Nyarlathotep is a smooth, dark listening experience, but it didn’t get its hooks into me in the way that Cthulhu did. I’m going to give Nyarlathotep 4/5, but if you like your dark ambient at the smoother, more introspective end of the spectrum, you could easily add at least half a point to that score.

Visit the Nyarlathotep page on Bandcamp here for more information, and check out one of the tracks from the album below:

I was given a free copy of this album to review.

Album Title: Nyarlathotep

Artist: Cryo Chamber Collaboration

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: September 27, 2016

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Book Review – Overcoming Depression

Book Review – Overcoming Depression

Review Written by Casey Douglass

If you suffer from depression you are far from alone. Depression is very common, affecting over 300 million people around the world. Written by Professor Paul Gilbert, internationally recognised for his work on depression, this highly acclaimed self-help book has been of benefit to thousands of people including sufferers, their friends and families, and those working in the medical profession. This fully revised third edition has been extensively updated and rewritten to reflect over ten years of new research on understanding and treating depression, particularly the importance of developing compassionate ways of thinking, behaving and feeling. It contains helpful case studies and new, easy-to-follow, step-by-step suggestions and exercises to help you understand your depression and lift your mood.

It occurred to me recently that even though I’ve read countless books on anxiety, OCD, CBT and other topics, I’ve not read nearly so many on the topic of depression. As someone who dips into depression with some regularity, I’m not sure why this use for dead trees has eluded my book collection. After a particularly crappy few weeks, weeks in which my usual health struggles were added to by a creeping despair that left even the posting of a tweet seemingly beyond me, I decided to look for a book on depression that might prove useful. I saw that the Overcoming series of books seems to be highly recommended, and as luck would have it, it was the Overcoming Depression flavour of the book that I opted for one drizzly day in Waterstones. There were others on the shelf that seemed like they might be worth considering, another one mentioned mindfulness and had a suitably nature-based cover, but I’ve had my fill of mindfulness-based books for this year at least, maybe more. That being said, Overcoming Depression: A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques does feature mindfulness, but along with a heck of a lot of other things.

A few pages shy of 600, it’s no brief flirtation with the subject, but an in-depth look at the many sides to depression: what can cause it, the purpose it might serve, how we can start to leave the depressive state and other issues that might just have a bearing too, such as how other emotions and feelings like anger and shame play their part. An early chapter looks at how evolution might have shaped our minds for depression, and how the things that happen to us in the modern day might hook into these old brain systems. This is particularly fascinating with regards to the purpose depression might have served in the earliest times of humanity, when a poor cave-person’s emotions might have been such that they went to the back of the cave and stayed there until things improved enough to come out again. The book says that viewing depression in this way is far more useful than simply viewing it as a disease.

As you might expect from a book with so many pages, it doesn’t stop there. It looks at the social and psychological aspects of depression too, before heading into the issue of what the relationship between our thoughts and feelings really is like, and how depression can skew our thoughts to a more pessimistic or rigid point of view on life. This naturally then leads us into the next section of the book, which deals with how the reader might be able to begin to cope with having a mind that is working this way. Mindfulness is described here, and also the practice of being compassionate, to yourself and others, as well as why we might want to try this and what benefits it will bring us and the people around us. It is in this section that the book goes into the depressive styles of thinking, pointing out that we often view the world in unhelpful ways, such as with all-or-nothing thinking, acting as if we “know” what other people are thinking about us, over-generalization, and others that will be familiar to anyone that has read about, or been treated with, cognitive behavioural therapy.

One of the biggest takeaways I had from the book was an improved understanding of the various emotion systems that regulate our minds. Coming from an anxiety background I was fully aware of the nervous system and how the sympathetic and parasympathetic sides of it play their part in our fight-or-flight and the rest-and-digest responses. Overcoming Depression added a third state to this duo, the drive and achievement system, the one behind our vitality and urge to do things. Depression disrupts the balance between these three systems, leading us to experience far more threat-linked feelings and fewer positive emotions such as happiness and contentment. The book, as you work through it, describes the ways that activating our contentment/rest system, via compassion meditation and other exercises, can help us to restore a more healthy balance in these three areas, also suggesting ways we can tackle our lack of motivation and the issues that come along as part of it.

Paul Gilbert writes in a warm and friendly manner, and does a very decent job of conveying a whole range of information in a clear way. I didn’t really expect to find anything particularly new or groundbreaking between the book’s covers but I came away with a few new tidbits of information and a decent understanding of things through the focussed lens of an author who clearly knows his subject and how to explain it. I can fully imagine myself referring to this book again and again as I try to internalise more and more of what he says, in an effort to manifest changes in my own life. If you suffer with depression, or know someone that does, Overcoming Depression: A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques is well worth buying and I’d definitely give it 5/5.

Overcoming Depression bookcover Image © Copyright Constable & Robinson

Book Title: Overcoming Depression: A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques

Author: Paul Gilbert

Publisher: Constable & Robinson

ISBN: 978-1849010665

RRP: £12.99

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Dark Book Review - Children of God

I review Children of God, a poetry book that showcases some of the poems from survivors of a cult-based mass suicide. It reveals their conflicted emotions and thoughts in a bid to help with their therapy. Click here to go to Geek Syndicate to read my full review.

Children of God book-cover image © Copyright ZING Communications, Inc.

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Why I Think that Korn’s “Rotting in Vain” Music Video is Amazing

Why I Think that Korn’s “Rotting in Vain” Music Video is Amazing

Written by Casey Douglass

Every once in awhile, I find a music video keeps pulling me back for repeat viewings. It doesn’t happen that often, but lately, I just can’t stop watching Korn’s music video for “Rotting in Vain”, a song from their upcoming album The Serenity Of Suffering. At various times in the last few weeks, I have been thinking about the video and what exactly it is that I like about it. These musings got funnelled into this semi-introspective piece of writing, which you may or may not find interesting; I just wanted to write it.

First up, I like Korn. I haven’t clicked with every one of their albums but there are a good number of songs that would probably sit high if I ever had to write a personal top 100 metal songs chart. I guess what I’m saying is that I am not predisposed to like something just because it’s Korn, but I do generally like their stuff.

The first thing a viewer of the video for “Rotting in Vain” will see is none other than Mr Tommy Flanagan, an actor that I have come to rate very highly, particularly for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy. He does the “steely-face but twitches of inner turmoil” thing very well, and seeing him in a video such as this really adds to the video’s effect.

Up next we see some strange steampunk contraption with lots of bulbs and a strange gas mask attached via a bendy tube. It isn’t long before Tommy’s character rams this mask onto his face, and, whether inhaling or screaming, triggers the appearance of the band members in various rooms, emerging from leaves and other debris as the track’s heaviness comes out to play.

I could probably search the internet to see what the video really means, but finding your own meaning in things is much more fun. To me, the run-down house is likely the rooms of Tommy’s character’s mind, the dark spaces where his troubles and agonies roam. The strange steampunk machine puts me in mind of the old fashioned opium dens seen in other steampunk settings, facilitating his reflections, but also a kind of an addictive drug too, likely keeping his pain going or even making it worse. The video ends with him slashing the tube with a razor, which seems to be another sign of an addict, but this time one who is deciding that enough is enough. I think most people will be able to relate to having to give up some addiction or vice, for the sake or their mental or physical health. Mine seems to be eating too much, but slicing a cream-cake in two simply makes it easier to eat, rather than look like a grand gesture.

Of course, the other half of the equation is the music, and with this video, the effect of the two seems doubly amplified. The chorus hits all the right notes with me, tapping into my recent moods and feelings, which is no doubt where another large part of my affinity for this video comes from:

“Digging deep inside of me,

getting past this agony,

I can’t seem to get away,

Another day rotting in vain.”

These four lines sum up so much about how I currently feel about life, it’s kind of uncanny. Add in the hoarse screaming of “vain” and the ear-hammering riffs, and this song is enough for me to buy the new album, even if I don’t hear a single one of the other tracks before hand. I don’t often say that about the music I buy.

I think that about sums it all up. I’ve linked to the video below so you can see it and hear it in its full glory. Korn’s new album The Serenity Of Suffering is released October 21st and is from Roadrunner Records.

Rotting in Vain Video Images © Copyright Roadrunner Records

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