gothic Archives

Slain! is a disappointing death growl

Heavy metal is the musical and theatrical manifestation of mankind’s lizard brain. It’s an auditory siege that rifles through our ancient and violent nature that was once necessary to survive. This music transmutes those base emotions through myth, metaphor, and performance through modern instrumentation, impossible without electrical amplification. The costumes vary from latex to bullet belts, corpse paint to standard issue black, and on the stage the lights are kept low or flashing. Every note and image is calculated and well-rehearsed, because metal thrives in the extremes and requires complete attention to maintain the shared illusion for everyone at the…

Review

Salt and Sanctuary has soul

Salt is an essential part of our biology. It helps regulate fluid balance between cells. Our entire system of nerves and muscles is designed around the special electrochemical properties of salt. Too much salt and we die. Too little salt and we die. It’s the perfect metaphor for the kind of complex equilibrium Salt and Sanctuary likes to brutally enforce. Get too aggressive and you die. Give into cautious hesitation and you die. Learn to navigate the invisible rhythms in-between these two extremes, though, and something beautiful happens. It’s a construct familiar to anyone who’s subjected themselves to the punishing…

News

Profiles of the Forgotten is "a videogame within a movie"

“Have you ever loved someone so much, that you could step out of time?” These are the words that introduce Profiles of the Forgotten, a project that lies somewhere between a traditional game and a film. The first project by Los Angeles developer Pablo Leon-Luna, Profiles of the Forgotten is described simply as “a videogame within a movie. A gothic fantasy.” The cinematic experience follows Jason, a young man returning to his family’s lake house to visit his stepsister, only to find that she refuses to speak to him any other way but through computer. As his attempts to reach…