REVIEWS BY MARK R. HASAN, THE GORE-MET, AARON VON LUPTON, GEORGE PACHECO AND TREVOR TUMINSKI


BLACK SUNDAY Les Baxter


SOUNDTRACK


KRITZERLAND Les Baxter’s complete 51-minute score is pretty much the only vehicle through which one can experience the shorter American version of Mario Bava’s ele- gant 1960 shocker. AIP’s habit of rescoring and re-dubbing Italian im- ports may have rendered their new product more palatable for the teen drive-in crowd, but Roberto Nicolosi’s moodier and even-tempered scoring style was a better fit for Bava’s care- fully rendered Gothic chiller. Baxter’s caffeinated approach did provide a sonic bridge for horror fans weaned on Universal-style heavy brass, dissonant strings and eerie organ chords, but per- haps the only aspect that really served the film (besides hastening the pacing) is the central theme, when played on strings. Baxter could work wonders when being minimal and deconstruct- ing his sharply drawn melodies, but he wouldn’t find the right blend until the Poe films, when he truly blossomed as an inventive genre composer. MRH 000½


builds the score around a gentle melancholy theme (heard in the open- ing track), which is reiterated in brief chamber versions, but never fully ma- tures. The lack of any thematic resolu- tion within the score allows him to musically drift between plains of calm- ness, best described as ephemerally soothing, but they mostly allude to a danger looming in the distance – fore- shadowed by ambient percussion and undulating chords with grungy metallic reverberations and scraping. Distant metal tapping and light percussive tex- tures are also part of the mix, with just a handful of genuine action cues break- ing up the moodiness. Though subtle, a second listen warms one to Julyan’s careful sound design and slow portent of an emotional apocalypse. MRH 000½


clearly takes its theology very seriously, as evidenced by the historical and philosophical treaties included with the album’s liner notes. Take it from us, a journey on the left-hand path has never sounded this good or this scary. AVL 00000


HEXENTANZ Nekrocrafte


AMBIENT


HEARTLESS David Julyan


SOUNDTRACK


SCREAMWORKS/MOVIESCORE MEDIA David Julyan returns to horror with a gentler work that seems more focused on the internal emotional conflicts of the lead character than the demons he believes are running amok on the streets of London. Similarly structured to his masterwork, The Descent, Julyan


DR. CALIGARI Hobgoblin NOVEMBER FIRE RECORDINGS After giving Nosferatu a new score in 2010, Strephon Taylor, the mastermind behind the prog-rock band Hobgoblin, aims his sights on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The score’s main anchor, tied to the dream element, is reflected by a vaguely Middle Eastern, semi-tragic theme that’s essentially an unresolved lament. Variations include the opening thrash metal version, one featuring waves of breathing electric guitar clus- ters, and several eerie renditions where the repeated theme cycles through contrasting moods (such as the sudden switch from solo keyboards to percus- sive synths and heavy electronica). Whether the music works for the film is up to the viewer, but as an album in- spired by the film, this is a laudable (and fun) effort, in which idioms and styles are recombined or smashed to- gether (most notably on the finale, “Ce- sare Resurrected”), while the spirit of Goblin is ever-present. MRH 0000


THE CABINET OF SOUNDTRACK


AGONIA Way back in RM#43, we published a feature on this Ashburn, Virginia-based artist collective (their moniker is German for “witch dance”), whose 2004 debut Nekrocrafte exemplified what a black metal band would sound like if it didn’t actually play metal. While sharing the same visual and atmospheric aesthetic as bands such as Bathory and Burzum, Hexentanz proved it could inspire night- mares with eleven tracks of unholy, or- ganic and utterly pitch-black ritual music. Previously out-of-print, Agonia has re-released this terrifying gem based around the witches’ Sabbat (sa- tanic midnight gatherings during the Middle Ages), which uses spooky sound effects, period instruments, human bones (!) and medieval chants to create a soundtrack for occult offerings and tribal ritual dances. This is no simple horror gimmick, though; the band


EVE HELL & THE RAZORS When the Lights Go Out


ROCK


HELLFI RECORDS After plucking through surfabilly instru- mental opener “Pick Dust,” Calgary singer/bassist Eve Hell’s commanding, full-throated vocals take centre stage on her second album, channelling To Bring You My Love era-PJ Harvey on the title track with a swoon-inducing vibrato that could cause grown men to bash- fully kick at the dirt. From there she leads guitarist Mike Hell and drummer Richie Ranchero through fifteen spirited cuts, including a raucous cover of Johnny Cash’s “Big River,” the frenzied rockabilly workout “Lipstick on My Mi- crophone” (not to mention blood on her


STAKE LAND Jeff Grace


SOUNDTRACK


SCREAMWORKS Having previously scored The Last Winter and House of the Devil, Jeff Grace is Glass Eye Pix’s go-to guy once more for the score to Jim Mickle’s post-apocalyptic vampire road movie. Upon a rich, orchestral foundation trimmed with violin, gently strummed acoustic guitar, fiddle and piano, Grace taps into the same haunting undercurrent as the music for TV’s Deadwood does, which makes sense given Stake Land is steeped in its own antiquated sense of rustic Americana. There are over- whelmingly beautiful moments among the 26 tracks, including the stately “Main Theme;” the simmering pot of moaning strings, timpani and a cello that seems to bend eerily in the breeze in “The Brotherhood;” the dramatic bluster of “Nothing Out There;” the scurrying strings of “Barn Attack;” and the intermittent sustained notes from a South African vuvuzela horn through- out, which signal the vampires’ attack. It’s hard to imagine the film’s well- drawn characters binding against anything less than Grace’s masterful compositions in their cross-country bid to survive. TT 00000


A U D I O D R O M E 63RM


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