Legendary Italian horror film director Dario Argento and legendary progressive rock band Goblin are often spoken of in the same sentence thanks to their long standing collaborations on many of Argento's great 70's and 80's cult film classics. Goblin's great soundtrack's are what made many of Argento's already creepy movies even creepier (Suspiria, Phenomena, Tenebre for example.) Since the demise of Goblin, keyboard player Claudio Simonetti has formed a new band called Daemonia with a few young guns on the Italian prog scene, namely Bruno Previtali on guitar, Federico Amorosi on bass, and Titta Tani on drums. A few years back this ensemble went into the studio and re-recorded many of the classic soundtrack themes from the Dario Argento films that Goblin originally released, and this CD once again has them playing those songs in a live setting with help from the Movie Strings Orchestra.
Daemonia takes the Goblin style and kicks it up a notch, with heavier guitar playing and thunderous drums, to go along with the over-the-top symphonic keyboard stylings of Simonetti. All the classic themes are here, including the haunting "Suspiria", the moody "Tenebre", and the ominous "Inferno" and "Phenomena." To call these chilling classics is an understatement, and the inclusion of the stringed orchestra and ethereal female soprano vocals on a few cuts adds to the dark gothic nature of these pieces. One listen to the suite of tracks from Deep Red/Profondo Rosso will send chills up and down your spine, as it did mine. The synergy between the players is remarkable, considering that this is a fairly new band, and they sound like they have been together for quite a while. Simonetti's synth work matches well with Previtali's chunky guitar riffs throughout this fine set, helping the group overall sound like an updated Goblin on steroids.
A nice inclusion is the addition of three studio cuts, which are covers of "Halloween" and "Tubular Bells" and an Enrico Simonetti tune called "Gamma", all played with the same conviction as the Goblin classics. This is hot stuff here, and comes highly recommended. The new soundtrack to October 31st has arrived...
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