Italian label Time To Kill Records have already delivered meaty horror morsels in the form of death metal maniacs Fulci and taken a side step into the Poliziottesco genre with grindbastards Napoli Violenta. Now it is time for them to gather gore and gruesomeness with this tribute to some of the greatest horror themes to stalk the celluloid screen from both home and abroad. Any fan of these films should know each and every one of these themes by heart and it has to be said it is a pleasure to find them all on one album, faithfully recreated (with some subtle nuances) to bring terror to the beating heart of soundtrack enthusiasts who no doubt already have the original compositions in their collections. That’s not to say this is a “covers” album as such, more a meeting of minds from both original composers such as Fabio Frizzi and various members of the sprawling incarnations of originators Goblin along the way. As a crossover point, we have collaborators of the late, great splatter ghouls Necrophagia on board including drummer Titta Tani (Simonetti’s Goblin), Mirai (Sigh) and Iscariah (ex Immortal, Wurdulak etc). Members of Fulci and Incantation are also in on the act and as a slight surprise on paper Dave Neabore of US ‘All Boro Kings’ Dog Eat Dog (a band I was not expecting to ever namecheck on this site).
Taking things out of order and starting with the US films of the album we have no less than three movies from John Carpenter’s oeuvre here. Escape From New York, is obviously not strictly horror but the futuristic synthwave and swaggering melody paved the way for both musical genre very much in favour today as well as a host of post-apocalyptic Italian films such as Rome 2033, Endgame and The Atlantis Interceptors all gaining new recognition today via great Blu-ray editions from Severin. The tinkling keyboard refrain stalking down suburbia from Halloween surely needs no introduction, a timeless fright classic of masked terror and torment for babysitters across the world. As for Ennio Moriconne’s ‘Desolation / Humanity Part 2,’ a chilling foray into the arctic wastelands of The Thing, shivers are guaranteed to run up and down the spine and the bass tones here are literally sick! Sticking with the era and America, how about a visit to Morningside Cemetery? Fred Myrow’s iconic theme and synth refrain from Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm is a haunting traverse into alien worlds, strange orbs and the relentless assault of the Tall Man. If it doesn’t scare you, you are already dead!
Let’s pop to Italy now and the greats are all present and correct; namely Argento, Fulci, Deodato and D’amato. I am particularly glad that the latter’s Buio Omega aka Beyond The Darkness is represented as Goblins theme is a great one representing the swagger of prog rock through to the futuristic keyboards they would experiment with to great effect on Bruno Mattei’s Hell Of The Living Dead a year later. From the embalming slab to the second Mother that is Argento’s Inferno. The romantic piano theme moving to prog overload and terrifying macabre choral parts sounds great and hopefully composer Keith Emerson would have approved. The slow dead march of Frizzi’s Zombi 2 is as catchy as a bite from the living dead and Riz Ortolani’s paradoxical main theme from Cannibal Holocaust remains as gorgeous as Deodato’s film is grotesque and taboo breaking.
The only UK entry and film from this Millenia no doubt worthy of representation is John Murphy’s main theme from Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. Anyone who is a fan of instrumental post rock has no doubt heard it recreated by many an artist and it is truly a piece of music ahead of its time as is the films legitimisation of fast-moving fiends (but don’t call them zombies). Topping everything off with a pea green soup regurgitation of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bell’s there’s no denying that each and every one of these tracks are essential inclusions as reference points to what many of us look on as the golden age of horror films.
There is obviously plenty of scope to continue this project and indeed the members have expanded things into a 2-hour live show. Hopefully when real life horrors are laid to rest this will be fulfilled in deconsecrated temples across the land. Until then this album is like having old friends visiting from beyond the grave.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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