REVIEWS BY MIKE BEARDSALL, TOMB DRAGOMIR, MARK R. HASAN, LIISA LADOUCEUR, AARON VON LUPTON, RON MCKENZIE, GEORGE PACHECO AND TREVOR TUMINSKI
ROSEMARY’S BABY Christopher Komeda
SOUNDTRACK
LA-LA LAND Central to the success of Roman Polanski’s demon child fable is the brilliantly simple main theme – a del- icate and utterly hummable lullaby – which immediately makes audiences empathize with the mother’s tortuous pregnancy and her unborn monster child. Christopher Komeda, perhaps Poland’s greatest jazz pianist and composer, rarely indulges in a shock cue, instead creating tension from chord progressions and repeated mo- tifs, spinning off each little effort into further disturbing variations where trumpet, voice and woodwinds sound completely otherworldly. When Satan, Jr. is finally revealed to the world, the horror is implied through a now oft- imitated brass cackle and Mia Far- row’s emotive recoiling, yet we’re utterly convinced we too saw the monster child. That’s a rare skill for a composer, and hopefully La-La Land’s limited CD (featuring the stereo re- recording and original mono score) will rekindle interest in this overlooked ge- nius. MRH 00000
reworked into the steely, broad-reach- ing industrial sound design. In its basic form, the title theme is a versatile dawning of, and elegy for, creation, and its arcing high registers allow the com- poser to layer in some bizarre motifs, such as grungy feedback and bass- heavy electric loops, which allude to the alien world and the self-preserva- tion instincts of humans and creatures. It’s not a kinetic techno score – there’s very little action material – but there’s a primordial aspect to the way things coalesce and erupt, creating spurts of sonic chaos before disappearing in a smoky, choral mist. It’s a valiant effort for the unnecessarily expanded fran- chise. MRH 000½
and “Eaters of the Dead” are here too, there are a couple superior songs that would’ve trumped the superfluous live track. If this is what an interstellar apocalypse by a blood-hungry horde sounds like, cue the invasion! TD 00000
PROMETHEUS Marc Streitenfeld
SOUNDTRACK
SONY CLASSICAL Like the Alien franchise’s prior com- posers, Marc Streitenfeld wisely chose to embrace modernism by fusing ele- ments of classical, choral and industrial styles. It’s not quite as daring as its predecessors, but Prometheus does have some high points, mostly in the way the score’s elegant main theme is
ZOMBIES This is Hellbilly Music! WOLVERINE RECORDS Mixing styles gave birth to psychobilly, yet few acts seem able to stray from the guitar twang and bass slaps that are the genre’s two rigid trademarks. Not true of this quartet from Nurem- berg, though, whose sound lands be- tween The Other and The Reverend Horton Heat, with the heavy guitar chords and fast drumming of old Metal- lica further distancing the band from its cookie-cutter contemporaries. Flesh’s vocals are more melodic and soulful than your typical hillbilly greaser too, providing an excellent contrast to the rest of the sinister ensemble, even if the lyrics are mostly limited to praising the immortal trinity of beer (“Oh Corona”), babes (“Trailer Park Queen”) and mon- sters (“Frankenstein’s Hot Rod”). The southern-fried album artwork and sub- ject matter would almost convince you that these guys are the real thing if it weren’t for those German accents oc- casionally bleeding through. Ah, but what the scheisse? This is psychobilly with a little more meat on its bones. MB 000
JOHNNY FLESH & THE REDNECK
PSYCHOBILLY
OUTER SPACE Decade of Decay – Gravest Hits SCHLIZTER-PEPI RECORDS Decade of Decay collects sixteen classic cuts from these Austrian psychobilly shufflers, serving up nods to celluloid horror (Cannibal Holocaust, Blood on Satan’s Claw) along with an irregular assortment of creepy killers, naughty necrophiliacs and intoxicated super monsters. This neck-boppin’, toe-tap- pin’, bass-slappin’ psychobilly cross- section includes “Teenage Universal Creature” (complete with surf-rock riffs and an infectious sing-along chorus), the macabre mariachi flare of “Moon- light Sonata,” the punk venom of “Mondo Video,” and “A Deeper Shade of Red,” which skillfully weaves a country- fried slide guitar over a dour, heartsick ballad. While undead anthems such as “Monster Mutant Boogie” (“We dance! To-night! Monster Mu-tant Boo-gie!”)
BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM
PSYCHOBILLY
CALABRESE Dayglo Necros
ROCK
SPOOKSHOW RECORDS Four albums in, Calabrese isn’t messing with what its audience craves. On Day- glo Necros, the Phoenix, Arizona, trio sticks to the chugging bass, badass gui- tar riffs and vintage horror movie clips that are its scrappy signature, while also continuing the huge leap forward in pro- duction quality that marked 2010’s They Call Us Death. The leather-wrapped lads get fast and dirty right out of the rickety gate with “The Dead Don’t Rise,” build- ing upon the Misfits-on-speed sound of “Violet Hellfire” from RM’s Hymns Vol. II. From there, the bottled danger of stand- outs “Heart Possession,” “Darkhold”
45 GRAVE Pick Your Poison
ROCK
FRONTIER RECORDS It’s party time again. Nineteen years after the last record from these legendary California death rock- ers, Dinah Cancer and crew (which now includes Frank Agnew of The Adolescents) are back to whip up some horror punk anthems for the next gener- ation. Who cares that the best song already came out in 2009? That would be “Night of the Demons” (from the movie remake of the same name), an instant Halloween classic fuelled by Cancer’s swagger and sneer, which perfectly suits the band’s raw, loose playing style. Seems that 45 Grave wants to stretch its batwings too: “Sorceress” offers a heavier dose of occultish doom and “Child of Fear” is more of a metal ballad, complete with chimes and cheesy guitar solo. Warning: there are several pretty sloppy country and funk experiments here, and closing track “Winds of Change” is not a spooky Scorpions cover, sadly. But there are some truly fun tracks and kudos to Cancer for mixing up her sonic poisons. LL 000½
DOWNLOAD THIS TRACK AT
RUE-MORGUE.COM/EXTRAS/HYMNS-FROM-THE-HOUSE-OF-HORROR 45 GRAVE - “NIGHT OF THE DEMONS”
A U D I O D R O M E 65RM
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