Blimey, it’s been a while since we faced the sea of darkness that is Anima Morte. 2014 to be precise with 3rd album ‘Upon Darkened Stains.’ I have actually been playing their older discs recently, well it’s that time of year isn’t it, the spooky season. So perfect time to break their silence and send shivers down the spine once more. Cinematic, instrumental horror music is the name of the game for the uninitiated. Helmed in Sweden by multi-instrumentalist Fredrik Klingwall (ex Loch Vostok, Machinery, In Grey) the project has certainly evolved since then. Indeed, although Fredrik is responsible for mellotron, synthesizer, electric/acoustic pianos, organs here there are no less than another 12 accompanying musicians here playing all manner of things from various woodwind, brass as well as naturally drums and bass.
Heavily inspired by Italian and US soundtrack work this is an album you can let your imagination run riot around its compelling song titles and create your own stories as you venture through them. I guess the title of the album refers to the snakelike tentacles of horror that invade your dreams and every song is a nightmare borne of flesh. Opener ‘Leaving Redemption Behind’ immediately strikes a raw nerve with synthwave spiralling into a superb creepy melody full of fear and tension. The proggy beat, twanging guitars and keyboard fronds are reminiscent of a Lovecraftian trawl through un-consecrated and defiled tombs and mausoleums, priests hang from the rafters and demonic nuns plunge from the shadows with daggers. I just watched Fulci’s surprisingly, not that bad, 1990 late entry Demonia and it would have fitted in perfectly there. Perhaps it’s due to the throbbing beat and the ghostly choral parts in the background but ‘Pathogenesis’ rather than taking me to The Wicker Man is very much the domain of The Dead, it’s a ‘Zombi’ ode with a bit of a futuristic twirl about it with Romero and Mattei in the hot seat leaving the cast as bloody fodder. ‘Seeds Of Trepidation’ is full of mystery as it slowly weaves around guitar work and adds some of the aforementioned sounds of brass and woodwind subtly about it. Giallo sleuths explore, looking for clues to a killer here around a sprawling house of doom and a palate that is Deep Red.
I could continue down this route but you should make your own stories up, instead it’s a case of concentrating on the nice thick bass definition, the melodicism and the flow of the tracks through their various motions. Haunted by a sudden appearance of a tinkling bone like glockenspiel and going with the flow it is noted that these signature tunes are far away from the modern jump scare motifs of the Blumhouse era of movies. The tracks roll around you like creeping mist, they at times stalk and there are occasional slashes but at the heart of things is a calmness and this is overall a more atmospheric journey than one of all-out terror. Goblin and Frizzi fans will certainly enjoy this and one could bring the more obscure compositors of themes into play but it’s hardly necessary and Anima Morte stick to one genre here rather than go off-field like so many directors did. The title track itself tickles the senses being just what I have described, a dreamlike shadowy incursion into a sleeper’s dream-state and as ‘The Underworld Beckons’ via melodious chimes its going to have you welcoming it rather than fleeing in horror.
If you are looking for the grand-guignol excesses of horror and gore splashed liberally around you are not going to necessarily find it here. This is all about the build-up and that is ultimately where a film succeeds or fails. Get spooky at the following links…
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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