Mayhem: Deathcrush (1987)

Mayhem: Deathcrush (1987)

Owing a huge debt to early Bathory albums, the first Mayhem E.P. has gone down in history as being the first commercial release from the Norwegian Black Metal scene. The eerie production makes it sound like hell is opening up in your front room.

It's full of screeching voice, fuzzy guitars, brutal bass and some early Black/Thrash motifs that would be put to better use on their first full studio album. Drums are by Kjetil Manheim, because Hellhammer hadn't yet joined. It's a classic and if you've any interest in the genesis and evolution of the Black Metal genre, then it's definitely worth your time.

Lucifer: Volume 01 (2001)

Devil in the Gateway (2001)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Scott Hampton / Chris Weston / James Hodgkins / Warren Pleece / Dean Ormston  | Page Count: 160

"Every time I try to improvise I find my moves were right there in the script all along."

Volume 01 of 11 in the Lucifer series. It'll help your introduction into the titular character's world if you've read The Sandman: Volume IV: Season of Mists (1992) previously; it's not an essential requirement, but it's recommended because Carey's version of the Miltonian anti-hero follows on from events therein.

The Dream King tried to find a balance but the Morningstar wants to upset the balance because he knows the balance is a lie. He wants to tear it away and leave a naked truth, one that's free to explore its own workings. But like the saying goes: as one door closes…

Violent Cop (1989)

Violent Cop (1989)

Dir. Takeshi Kitano

In Takeshi Kitano's début feature film as director he stars as Azuma, a pissed-off detective with some unorthodox methods. Azuma uses violence often because he knows it gets results. It's administered methodically but can sometimes appear casual. He'll bitch-slap and humiliate anyone he feels deserves it, but when events turn personal, when his role as protector is compromised, the level increases and is sustained for longer.

Hisashi Nozawa is credited as sole writer but Kitano made such significant script revisions that in the end his persona dominates all parts of it. The transposition of honed comedy timing into filmmaking style make the changes in tone swift and unexpected, like a good joke or a cutting remark.

Stargate SG-1: Season 01 (1997–98)

SG-1: Season 01 (1997–98)

Dirs. Various | 22 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

The first (and best) TV Series to continue the story of the Stargate (1994) movie was SG-1.

It kicks off with a feature-length Pilot episode titled Children of the Gods. Set approximately one year after the movie's end, the Stargate program at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex has been shut down, with just a handful of guards watching over it. But when a previously unseen Goa'uld 'God' is encountered, the wheel spins again and the team must return to Abydos.

Some significant but excellent recasting means we lose Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O'Neill but gain Richard Dean Anderson (aka MacGyver), who quickly makes the role his own.

Likewise, actor James Spader, who starred as Egyptologist Daniel Jackson in the movie, is replaced by Michael Shanks. For me, both replacements do a better job than the original duo; though with SG-1 being episodic the new stars have more time to develop the characters.