On a treelined suburban sidewalk, a man wearing a white mask and blue coveralls steps out from behind a hedge.
  • The flyers for the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest 2025, showing the band lists for Friday and Saturday

    Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes Part III: Day Two, The Fillmore by J †Johnson


    Get a whiff of that oud! It’s Part III of JJ’s Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes, featuring 4 shitty concert photos, 3 music novels, 2 outbursts & a metal nap🤘🏼🖤💀 Read the piece.

  • Four chapbook covers featuring collages by Kayte Terry

    The 2024 Chapbook Series is now available!


    CDSOB’s first print chapbook series has arrived! Check out new collections from Juliet Cook, Christine Kanownik, Jonathan Minton, and Michael Sikkema! View the books.

  • A line drawing of a vintage projector

    Friday Feature


    Mini-reviews of horror movies, books, albums, and other cultural artifacts dropping every Friday.

    Now screening: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

Recent Work

In the movie Curtains, someone wearing a hag mask skates across the ice while holding a sickle

Two Poems
by Juliet Cook

There’s fear in getting older, but there’s power as well. Isn’t that how horror works? If we can face it, we can be the monster, maybe even survive the ordeal. CDSOB regular Juliet Cook holds up a mirror and lets us see the cracks in two poems.

Published April 28, 2025

In the Twilight Zone episode "The Man in the Bottle," Rod Sterling stands in the foreground facing the camera while in the background Mr. and Mrs. Castle stand looking worried in their antique shop

The Cat's Paw
by Julia Rajagopalan

Be careful what you take home from the black tent at the farmers’ market. Wait a second... We haven’t seen that tent before! Today, we present Julia Rajagopalan’s story, “The Cat’s Paw.”

Published April 21, 2025

A hand drawn heavy metal logo that reads CDSOB

Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes Part II: Day One, The Fillmore by J †Johnson

Show us your spirit balls, it’s Part II of JJ’s Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes.

Published April 18, 2025

From the movie Don't Look Now, there is a photo of a church dais with a giant stained glass window. A mysterious red blood has spread over the picture

After Eden
by Daniel Beauregard

Find yourself a cup of tea or a glass of something & fall into the dizzy spell of this story from CDSOB regular Daniel Beauregard. You will come through it changed. Today, we are pleased to present “After Eden.”

Published April 14, 2025

From the X-Files, Mulder and Scully sit in an office and speak intently to each other. In the background is a poster with a UFO that reads, "I want to believe."

X-Files, S.4, E.21
by Daniel C. Remein

The truth is out there in Daniel C. Remein’s dual ekphrastic notation: “it must have been loud when the screen was eaten” might take us to “the cause of symptoms is a sharp thing” or it might well lead us somewhere else.

Published April 7, 2025

In The Thing, MacReady stands with his hand held up in front of him. The other hand holds a gun as he leads a group of men to check on the dog kennel

Skull Brothers VS the Fog Monster
by Michael Sikkema

“There’s a reason there’s a skull in the baby stroller out front / OK but that motherfucker ain’t no harbinger.” Let’s all go to the sometimes room and respect the locals. Part Beckett play, part Night of the Living Dead, part paranoid Carpenter loop, total Michael Sikkema poem. Today we present “Skull Brothers VS the Fog Monster”💀💀🌫️👹

Published March 31, 2025

In Bluebeard, a woman stands at a table with her hand resting at the temple of a decapitated head on a platter

Two Poems
by Marta Núñez Pouzols

While we await the arrival of the giant squid & watch for blue whiskers, we ruminate on a tale as old as the marriage plot, in two poems by Marta Núñez Pouzols.

Published March 24, 2025

A heavy metal inspired logo that reads, "Cul-de-sac of Blood"

Illustrations
by Chris O'Neal

Artist Chris O’Neal recently designed some new metal logos for Cul-de-sac of Blood. Today we present a selected gallery of Chris’ illustration work.

Published March 17, 2025

A black and white movie still from Nosferatu where the shadow of Count Orlok is creeping up the stairs
An image from the movie Candyman, where Candyman hovers vertically in the air near the ceiling in a hospital room
A still from the movie Carrie, where Carrie stares blankly with eyes wide while she is covered in blood against the blue curtain
A still from the movie Re-Animator where Dr. West is filling a hypodermic needle with a glowing green liquid