REVIEWS BY DAVE ALEXANDER, THE GORE-MET, MARK R. HASAN, MONICA S. KUEBLER, AARON VON LUPTON, GEORGE PACHECO AND TREVOR TUMINSKI.
SEASON OF THE WITCH Atli Örvarsson
SOUNDTRACK
RELATIVITY MUSIC GROUP Despite the supernatural elements, crazy performance by Nicolas Cage, and Dominic Sena’s smash-boom style of direction, Atli Örvarsson still chooses to draw musically from former mentor Hans Zimmer instead of crafting a dis- tinct work that exploits his own knack for percussion and electronic textures, and instrumental contrasts. Season of the Witch is epic alright – the orchestra is huge, and the mixed chorus provides grace and grandeur when paired with brass – but the whole endeavour feels like a best-of pastiche. The bombastic orchestral cuts belong in a pirate movie, the moody choral motif (“Crusades”) brings the solo authorship of Zimmer’s Angels & Demons into question and the main theme’s rich harmonics (“Road to Severac”) are very close to Steve Jablonsky’s The Island theme. It’s all beautifully orchestrated and performed, but it’s indistinguishable from Zimmer’s Media Ventures Action Pack canon and, as such, the digital album leaves the lis- tener feeling rather empty 60 minutes later. MRH 00½
ernism and melody. The Rite is con- structed like an immersive journey, set- ting up dark musical elements, introducing gentle thematic material, and then quickly plunging the listener into a swirling world of ominous, low- volume passages that frequently rear up into gnashing metallic chaos (“The First Exorcism”). Heffes’ use of elec- tronics is subtle, the non-liturgical chorals are still regal and plaintive, and his controlled bombast evokes a bit of vintage Hammer horror (“The Final Ex- ercise”) filtered through his contempo- rary sensibilities. A seven-minute thematic recap closes this beautifully orchestrated, crisply engineered album, and genre aficionados ought to be pleased with Heffes’ careful, under- stated approach. MRH 0000
amount of uniformity. Let’s hope The Grave Mistakes dig a little deeper next time. DA 00½
in a time capsule underneath a flap of shag carpet in the basement of that quiet, probably stoned kid from your high school art class, man, has Blood Ceremony got a record for you. TT 000½
BLOOD CEREMONY Living with the Ancients
ROCK
THE GRAVE MISTAKES Dig Your Own Grave
PSYCHOBILLY
THE RITE Alex Heffes
SOUNDTRACK
SILVA SCREEN RECORDS With a background scoring gripping and emotionally wrenching documen- taries (Touching the Void, The Bridge), Alex Heffes was a strong choice to compose music for a theological shocker, and fans of the subgenre will appreciate his balance of striking mod-
INDEPENDENT Some new bands want to explode onto a scene with something original, while others just try to slide in as best they can. The Grave Mistakes, a psychobilly trio from Jasper, Alberta, are in the lat- ter category. Hell, their debut, Dig Your Own Grave, is practically a template for the subgenre. This means horror pseu- donyms, such as singer “Brad Grave” (who used to go by “Brad Hacienda” when he was in the rock band The Las Vegas Crypt Keepers), pics of the group members in zombie makeup and songs about graveyards, hot rods, the undead, evil women, jail, ghosts, switchblades, etc. The group has musical chops, though, and there are a few really solid dust-ups here, including the fast-paced “Wake the Dead” and the swingin’ “Switchblade Louis.” Rene D la Muerte of Montreal’s The Brains keeps things tight behind the board as producer, making Dig Your Own Grave a re- spectable, if not groundbreaking, debut. In a scene supposedly comprised of rebel outlaws, there’s an astounding
RISE ABOVE/METAL BLADE Beginning with a lengthy tribute to The Great God Pan – which, ironically, is one of the few songs here that doesn’t in- clude singer Alia O’Brien’s haunting flute – Blood Ceremony’s Living with the An- cients continues the eerie prog séance the Toronto occult rockers staged on their 2008 self-titled debut. Scratchy organ and aural black magic swirl throughout magnificently epic jams such as “My Demon Brother” and the Aleister Crowley-inspired “Oliver Haddo,” but don’t expect a musical rev- elation. This is nothing that bands such as The Devil’s Blood and Ghost – simi- larly cured in ’70s analog warmth and the doomy, incense-soaked strains of Black Sabbath, Coven, Jethro Tull, Jef- ferson Airplane and early Heart – aren’t doing too. But, if you’ve been pining for tunes that sound like they were buried
THE DEVIL IN LOVE Various Artists
ROCK
MALÖRT One glance at this double album’s sub- title (“A soundtrack to the 1772 occult novel”) and it’s clear this is no ordinary score. In fact, it’s not a score at all, but 22 indie rock/instrumental tracks based on Jacques Cazotte’s French novel about a young man who summons the Devil, and then begins to wonder if Satan really is immune to love. While this re- lease coincides with the story’s recent Swedish translation, one need not be fa- miliar with the text to enjoy this offbeat collection. The tracks offer a variety of instrumentation, in everything from modern to more traditional arrange- ments. Some cuts have vocal melodies (many lilting and captivatingly bizarre), while others inject elements of spoken
POLTERGEIST Jerry Goldsmith
SOUNDTRACK
FILM SCORE MONTHLY FSM’s two-disc set finally delivers a satisfying remaster of Jerry Goldsmith’s piercing little symphony about cadavers and man-eating trees upsetting the idyllic world of ’80s suburbia. Disc one repeats the content of the older Rhino CD, but the bass and orchestral oomph that was di- aled out in the prior release has been restored. Disc two presents the original album edit with all of the audiophile dynamics present on the original LP. (Grunt- ing bass and percussion booms never sound better than when penned by Gold- smith.) The saccharine “Carol Anne” theme provides a perfect contrast to the grisly orchestral meanness, and while heavily reliant on emotive thematic ma- terial, the dense instrumental colours capture that fine balance between Spiel- bergian sappiness being raked over fire and brimstone by Tobe Hooper’s directorial sensibilities, as in “Night of the Beast” and the epic “Escape from Suburbia.” A mandatory release for one’s collection. MRH 00000
A U D I O D R O M E 63RM
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