Botfly Album Art

The upcoming act known as Botfly hails from the southern depths of Texas and delievers a Holy Terror influenced sound driven by religious dementia and violent humanity. I've had the opportunity to work on various projects for this southern powerhouse which includes their first EP release called "I:Shining Path" and a T-Shirt Design featuring an post apocalypse nun and a script on back stating "Religion is a VVeapon". As the EP gains attention the band has returned to the studio again to release another album featuring an album design rip from AFI's All Hallows EP. Below I've listed some links including a free download to their EP. If you like the EP I've also included a link to their Big Cartel store so you can purchase the shirt and EP together.

Download The EP
 
Buy Some Merch Here

BUY SOME MERCH AND SUPPORT GOOD ART

Vomit, Gore, Integrity, and a piece of XXX

Friends I have quite the treat for your viewing and reading pleasure. This month I focused on a genre known as Vomit Gore. You might be asking yourself "What the fuck is vomit gore?" Well I went straight to the source and that's the person that has created a style of film that will not only scare the piss out of you, it will cause all of your senses to react in the most violent of ways. Lucifer Valentine is the creator of the films "Slaughtered Vomit Dolls" and "ReGOREgitated Sacrifice" and the sole creator of Vomit Gore. I will be reviewing both of these films and along with that I have a very exclusive interview with Mr. Valentine. Now if that's not enough to tickle your insides I also have a showing of my newest piece for Black Ink Horror XXX which I am sure will even cause Mr. Valentine to smile and if that's not enough I am even bringing not one, not two, not even three, but four Integrity Albums in their entirety for download (courtesy of Dwid Hellion from Integrity). So sit back relax and certainly don't eat anything big before reading on.



So I started my day early with a viewing of what I've been told is the most artistic vomitous creation that has ever been displayed for viewing pleasure. This particular film is titled "Slaughtered Vomit Dolls" and it's the first creation of what is to be a three part series from it's creator Lucifer Valentine. Lucifer starts the movie big with a blender effect of images and what seems to be a tale of a young girl turned stripper/prostitute. The movie begins with a film of a young girl performing a singing routine and right their is pretty much where the cuteness ends. Throughout the rest of the film we realize that we are viewing some of the most haunting and disturbing sequences of torture and domination. Your literally viewing the torment that the lead character played by Ameara LaVey is going through. She is referred in the film as Blisters and Angela Aberdeen and besides viewing scenes of her stripping, sleeping, and vomiting you also witness the what seems to be a never ending eye gouge section and even a more interesting scene of vomiting into whats left of a sawed off skull. Now beyond all the shocking visual disturbances lies a masterpiece of artwork that most may not even get to finish. So I suggest that if you have the strongest of stomachs then go ahead an attempt to view this film because once you think it's complete you fail to realize that another film is right around the corner. The 2nd edition of the Vomit Gore trilogy is "ReGOREgitated Sacrifice" and if you thought Lucifer couldn't strike again well your dead wrong. This film is Guided by Identical Twin Demon Spirits The Black Angels of Hell, we see the Diabolical Depiction of the Alternate-Parallel Dimension of the Simultaneous Suicide Deaths of Kurt Cobain and bulimic porn star Angela Aberdeen; as seen through the mental activity of Angela’s journey toward Brain Death as a result of her self-inflicted Death By Drowning. I think the visual effects were stepped up even another notch with this soon to be classic. An immediate intro featuring a sawing apart of the twins as they walk toward you attached at the skull. Your left viewing their wide open skulls bubbling with gory delight. If that not enough you'll really enjoy the scene with Hank Skinny as he eats the intestines and spews them back up on a still very alive victim. Surrealistic and almost hallucinogenic are the terms that come to mind after viewing this film. It's almost a dream and the blender effect of filters and haunting music really adds to the experience. If your over 18 I suggest you go http://www.regorgitatedsacrifice.com/ and download the entire film also since Slaughtered Vomit Dolls is pretty much impossible to find I have been granted permission from Mr. Valentine to link you folks to a Torrent which allows you to download the entire SVD movie but please take note that the film will soon be re released under a new distributor which will allow you folks to own your own copy but for now this link will serve as your only access http://www.mininova.org/tor/1111945. After your done viewing it I suggest you give Mr. Valentine a donation for all his hard work. He certainly deserves it and to conclude my review I have asked a few questions which he was very excited to answer.



Now Mr. Valetine how long have you been film making and why have you choose film as your outlook for expression?

I started filming my little sister Cinderella when I was a kid, like nine or ten years old. I had to take care of my little sister as my parents were always away and Cinderella was nearly blind and needed constant supervision; and I was making prolonged portraits of her, chronicling her life and development as a person as she was very attached to me ( we had a incest relationship so my sister was actually my girlfriend) and quite obsessed with performing for me on camera and telling me all kinds of bizarre stories and singing weird songs that she’d make up she went along and she’d fall down all the time or bang into walls. Now my sister is gone because she took her own life a year and a half ago; and the way I always have made movies is exactly the way I did as a kid; just watch and ask meaningful questions of whoever I am shooting and let the subject show me their terrifying beauty.

Your films have received a lot of attention and a lot of that is negative throughout a lot of the forums. How does that affect you and your process?

I don’t experience negativity at all. Someone else’s false notions about the existence of anger and hateful thoughts belongs solely to that mistaken person and has nothing to do with my life and certainly nothing to do with my experience of film making. Since I began releasing my films, I have met thousands of wonderful interesting people that have shown me kindness and respect and that’s been my experience so far.

You have some really talented actors that work with you. I assume most of them are friends. How do they react to some of the scenes you have created and particularly the massive amounts of vomiting?

Yeah I only work with trusted friends or friends of friends. Everyone I work with in a movie knows what I am about as an artist and a person and knows that we are going to get crazy and push ourselves as far as we can go and even further than we can imagine and it’s a trip and since everyone knows that ahead of time and agrees to it everything on set while filming goes smoothly!! As for the vomiting, well nearly everyone I work with has specifically asked me to put them in my movie because they LOVE vomiting, so its never a problem !

I particularly enjoy Slaughtered Vomit Dolls and I think alot of that has to do with Ms. LaVey's performance on the screen. She really takes her character to another level which brings a dark realism to the film. Where on earth did you find such a talented actress?

Well Ameara LaVey was my girlfriend when we shot SLAUGHTERED VOMIT DOLLS (svd), she is a hardcore porn actress and stripper and we met at a few parties because we had common friends. Ameara and I kept on running into each other at parties and, believe it or not, she kept asking ME out on a date, so the fourth time she asked I took her out and we became instantly connected and formed an unbreakable bond where she was my submissive and I dominated her and she fully trusted me with her life and would do anything I told her to do. A time came when Ameara was homeless and needed a place to stay so I said she could stay with me but I’d film her at any time, 24/7, doing anything totally at my discretion; naturally she agreed so that’s how I began shooting SLAUGHTERED VOMIT DOLLS !!

You clearly have a system to how each of your films seems to operate. Chaotic imagery and multiple lapses of time all intertwined to create a story of a whole perspective. I think my description barely scratches the surface so if you would please elaborate on this?

I am showing the mental activity of Angela Aberdeen as she is dying from her tortured, hellish, brutal tragic life. Angela’s thoughts and emotions are fragmented shards and the “debris” of her shattered mind are disintegrating from her consciousness of “this world”, meaning, earth 1994 (that’s the year in which we see the beginning of Angela’s Death). Angela’s horrific manifested mental and spiritual energy literally has a life of its own and that energy can form its own perceivable specters; apparitions that represent Angela in various traumatic forms; initially I called these apparitions SLAUGHTERED VOMIT DOLLS, apparent ”victims” of various forms of torture, mutilation, dismemberment decapitation etc., these are the manifested visual symbolic personifications of Angela’s terrible abusive traumatic experiences of her short and hellish life.

With the extreme nature of these films are you having a hard time getting your films distributed and viewed by those who really want to experience it and if so what are you doing to combat that?

My movies are distributed by Xploited Cinema and they are an awesome company !! I get emails from people all over the world everyday so I assume lots of people are seeing my movies !Also, I allowed my second movie, ReGOREgitated Sacrifice to be downloaded from the website, so I think that really helped to get the word out there !

You clearly mention an involvement with Satan and I believe I've read in other interviews that you were raised by Satanists. Would you care to explain your background a little?

My parents are Satanists and raised me with that as our family religion. Now that I am all grown up I don’t follow any religion, ironically, the entire point of being Satanic is to be your own Kingdom, that you are to learn and evolve and make yourself strong, and to bow down to NO ONE EVER, so we use the word Satan to represent that ideology, we don’t worship Satan as an externalized fictional character as is commonly believed, Satan means YOURSELF, you have an allegiance and loyalty to the perpetual creation of your own personal idea of greatness and your beast-like self, meaning, the kinds of things that make you an Apex Predator in nature. I have my own ideas about my personal spirituality, however I do refer to myself as a Satanist because that was how I was raised and its an homage to my childhood to say that.On my myspace I states what I believe Satan is:To me Satan means whatever people can't fathom or understand; the Unknown, whatever breaks the commonplace and predictable mental patterns of conventional thought and experience; Satan represents the opposite of people's fears, weakness, and crushing self-doubt about their world and the entire Universe.

Well Mr. Valentine I want to thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions and also allowing the download of your films. I wish you the best of luck in the future and may the third film bring you much deserved success..

So the big reason why I got into Mr. Valentines work is due to Tim Manning's addition to Black Ink Horror. He is publishing a very special addition of Black Ink Horror known as XXX. This very special and limited edition will include the most extreme of stories and FULL COLOR illustrations from Black Ink's best illustrators. I was lucky enough to be assigned a truly chilling story from Mark Leslie Lefervre titled "Switch". The gory details described from Mark called for so inspiration from the industries finest gore artists and that of course led me to Lucifer Valentine. So I hope you guys enjoy this edition of Black Ink as much as I do and I will keep you all posted on release dates.

Last but certainly not least is the music section of this months blog and I've included links to downloads of four full length Integrity albums. If you haven't heard of Cleveland's finest then your surely missing out. Dwid Hellion has been claimed to be the pioneer of Metal Core not to mention his is also one of the Hardcore Music Industries best illustrators and film makers. I highly suggest you folks google and learn what there is to learn about the Holy Terror artist.

Those Who Fear Tomorrow
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2675524&blogID=366763218

Humanity Is The Devil

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2675524&blogID=395583838

Systems Overload

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2675524&blogID=395571468

Seasons In The Size Of Days

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2675524&blogID=395890415

Penis Tattoo's and Arkangels of Death

So it's been awhile since my first blog was launched. My intentions are to keep this updated monthly and I have a real treat for everyone this month. I was able to hunt down my terribly busy buddy Dick Starr for an exclusive interview. Also this month I have a review of the H8000 Belgium hardcore band Arkangel which includes a download to their newest album. If that isn't enough I am also gonna start by showing you guys a sneak peak of what I am illustrating for Black Ink Horror XXX. So I bet your asking yourself what is so special about BIH XXX that isn't in every other issue. Well it's simple the stories are grittier then they have ever been. This issue is intended to be more extreme then any of the issues out to date. Not to mention this issue will be limited in print and include color illustrations. That's right "Color"..... I've decided to work with Pen, Ink, and some really expensive watercolors. The great thing about watercolor is that it works really well with india ink.. You can even layer ink wash in with the pigment. I have to tell you I've used low grade watercolors in the past and they can't even begin to compare what quality pigment does. I am currently using a set from Winsor & Newton since I really enjoy their high end Oil and Acrylic line but I've also heard positive remarks about Grumbacher as well.
So in this months interview I mentioned that I was going to interview the infamous Dick Starr. I have been ever so lucky to call this guy a friend but not only is he a friend I've also had the opportunity to share space with Mr. Starr in a handful of publications like Potter's Field and Black Ink Horror. Dick and I also participated in a four way collaboration with Peter Brown and Dr Twistid to come up with the now popular Morbid Lisa. So without further delay here is how my interview went with Mr. Starr.

So Mr. Starr I'm sure everybody has the same question for you and that's how in the hell did you come up with your name?

When I was eighteen, I wanted to get a cool tattoo...a star on the head of my dick. It'd be my magic wand of sorts. However, I didn't want to get the tattoo in a shop full of random people and my johnson out in the hands of some guy. I had a friend at the time that was several years older than me that tattooed. He said he'd do it at home for $50 and a 6-pack. When I got to his place, he chickened out and began coming up with all of these "reasons" why I shouldn't get it done. Long story short, he didn't want to accidentally destroy my "junk". He ended up calling me Dick Starr after that, and it stuck. I performed hip hop under that name for a couple of years in college as well. Nowadays, my best friend is a licensed tattoo artist and he's going to do the tattoo as soon as he's ready. My wife can't wait.

Your work tends to turn heads and sometimes even causes some backlash, especially your celebrity massacre work. Does the negative feedback motivate you even more or has it caused you to step back a bit?

I kinda like the negative feedback. If nobody ever gave me grief about some of my stuff, I think I'd be doing something wrong. My stuff isn't supposed to appeal to everyone. I'll put it this way, my grandmother claims that she spent several minutes throwing up after she saw my website. That could not have tickled me any pinker!

So I think most everybody knows you from the pages of early Black Ink Horror. Since then you've branched out and have been involved in some other amazing projects, would you care to tell about some of the projects you've been working on?

Totally. I've been busy with a couple of big projects lately, including one for MTV2 Headbanger's Ball. I've got another feature coming up in the next issue of Girls and Corpses Magazine showcasing a couple of Super Secret (exclusive) Celebrity Death Polls. I think you'll really enjoy Carrot Top's demise.

What are the primary tools of your trade?

Mechanical Pencil, Uni-ball Jetstream pens, Wacom Tablet, PhotoShop. Add a little herbage, a bloody slasher flick, some good tunes, a thermos full of strong coffee, a little touch of insanity, and you've got the recipe for a nasty masterpiece.

You often mix digital coloring with hand drawn work. How do you feel about digital work and the direction it is heading? Do you feel that traditional illustration is becoming a dying bread because of it?

Well, I personally enjoy classic ink works the most, but the digital aspect has really broadened the horizon for a lot of artists including myself. If you look back at the beginning of my gallery, EVERYTHING is pencil or ink. Nowadays, I've gotten pretty comfortable in PhotoShop, and I think it's the way the mainstream side of the art industry is heading. Just like the practical effects (make up, props, guts, etc.) in movies, they aren't dead and gone, Digital Effects just hog all of the mainstream spotlight. People like Tom Savini, the Weta Workshop, and Stan Winston Studios are all still very much in business and will hopefully stay that way for a long time. Physical art will never die, I'm talking to one of the current/future greats right now.

If you could give advice to somebody who wishes to get involved in freelance work what would you say to them and what would you tell them to watch out for?

I'd say don't be afraid to approach somebody about an art gig. If you like a certain site or magazine, spend some time on a piece JUST for them. It could be an ad for them, a portrait of the site's owner, or anything you think they might enjoy. Send it to them and see what they do. They may simply say "thanks" or not reply at all...but they might just have something for you OR know somebody that does. Also, I know it can be very time consuming, but make yourself present online. Join communities like Deviant Art and be active. I get most of my tattoo gigs from people on SuicideGirls, and most of my album cover jobs from bands on MySpace. Guerilla marketing baby! The only thing I'd warn people about is payment. If you get asked to provide art for somebody in exchange for money, GET A DEPOSIT!! Even if it's only a small percentage, it will at least insure that you get something for your work. You'd be surprised at how many people will try to skip out on payment, it isn't very hard to do. I ask for %50 up front and %50 upon completion. PayPal is easy and all you need is a bank account, look into it.

And one last question here, have you had any formal training or have you learned pretty much everything on your own?

My mother still has decapitated Superman drawings of mine from when I was 4 and 5yrs old. I learned a lot on my own growing up, but I went to the Savannah College of Art & Design studying sequential art after high school. I've been teaching myself PhotoShop over the last couple of years.

Well Dick it's been a real pleasure interviewing you. You had some really informative answers and I think the people reading this will really get some much needed Starr knowledge.. So thanks again..

To view more of Dick Starr's work please visit him on Deviant Art ,Myspace, or his very own page at the following links.

http://www.dickstarr.net

http://dickstarr.deviantart.com/

http://www.myspace.com/dickstarr

Now in this months music section I wanted to let you all in on the Belgium Hardcore scene. The market is truly flooding with awful overrated Metalcore jargon and Europe is one of the few places that still holds brutal hardcore. A buddy of mine Dwid Hellion (Lead singer of Integrity) moved to Belgium quite a few years ago in need of some change in his life. Well after hearing how awesome Belgium was I decided to do some research myself. Who would have thought that Belgium was hiding some amazingly talented bands and had started there own movement called H8000 which stands for "hate thousand". The movement includes bands like Congress, Rise and Fall, and Arkangel. Arkangel has to be one of my favorite acts from that area and they deliver a sound like no other. Abrasive understandable vocals that crawl deep into your skin. The riffs that are nothing less then brutal. Arkangel just released their third full length album and it truly sets the standards for brutal hardcore. I highly recommend that you download the new full length then listen to it. If you enjoy as much as I do you'll certainly run to the store and purchase them all.

Artist - ArkangelAlbum - Is Your EnemyGenre - Metal / HardcoreWebsite - http://www.myspace.com/privatehell
Country - Belgium
Tracklist1. Damned Forever
2. Enduring Violence
3. Slow But Heavy
4. 13ThHour
5. I Believe In Danger
6. Ugly It Is
7. Killing To Keep The World Turning
8. Scarred
9. On The Blacklist...

Link for download http://www.mediafire.com/?vhynxyd5mwh
P.S. uncheck the check box on the download screen before downloading. Download is courtesy of Death Core is Sexy v3.

The Insano Death Chair

Welcome friends and fellow visitors to my newest page of dementia, obscene rantings, useless jargon, and mindless bullshit. This here is my first official blog and I want to take the time to explain to you vistors exactly what you might read within these lines. Hopefully you have stumbled upon these pages through some sort of art link so that you may know that art is my true passion. I intend to display some of my newest projects exclusively on this page and before it is viewed anywhere else on the web. I also intend to have regular interviews and features of other fellow artists. Lastly I also intend to dedicate a section to music and books that I may be interested in at the moment in time. So for my first blog I want to show everyone my newest design that I've created for the death rap artist "Insano". You may view his page at this following http://www.myspace.com/insan0 address. I've been creating illustrations for the rapper for a few months now and intend to build a series of illustrations that not only delight but cause terror and shivers that make you really feel atmosphere and the emotions of the images. I'm a true believer that gore doesn't absolutely need to be involved to create true terror. Granted it helps in some cases and in others too much can really take away from the image at hand. I like to create a careful balance to the imagery and keep it as real and technical as possible while still making sure the image is still in a raw illustrated form. I find that nowadays too much work is left to the computer and we often use this tool as a crutch. Granted I sure do use the computer for post production, but I can truley say that I always start with a pencil and fresh piece of paper. I can also say that true illustrators are becoming few and far between mostly due to digital production. This trend has dominated the past decade yet I now see the demand for us traditional artists within the past couple years increase and I truely hope that this trend continues.........

"Embrace The Horror" is the latest Cd I've been listening to from the Netherlands Metalcore band "Incarnate". I must say that I am a huge fan of the H8000 sound thats over in europe and by no surprise this cd fits right in. Huge thrash riffs with vocals that remind me of early Death Metal artists or Even Euro Grind Core. The recording is nothing but superb. The band pulls influence from bands like Integrity, All Out War and Earth Crisis and I must say those are some mighty fine choices of inspiration. So if your into some really good metal do yourself a favor and visit there site, http://www.myspace.com/incarnate listen to their songs, add them as a friend, and go buy a fucking CD.