Confrontational ‘Kingdom of Night’ Review: some spooky tunes perfect for your 2016 Halloween festivities.
October is the month we all should indulge in our darker side. And along with a healthy diet of horror movies, there’s also plenty of music to go along with your trick of treating.
And there are two recent releases that more than fit the bill. First up is Kingdom of Shadows, the sophomore release from Italian synth-wave act Confrontational. This follow-up to 2015’s excellent A Dance of Shadows sees project mastermind Massimo Usai expand on his winning formula, fusing horror show soundscapes with New Wave and Goth textures.
Eerie darkwave-y intro Kingdom Come sets the tone, followed by In The Line of Fire, a dance floor banger that hearkens back to pre-industrial metal Ministry with its squiggling synths, thunder-clap beats and Usai’s high-register croon.
Keep Faith is a percolating duet with Helene De Thoury that builds to an anthemic chorus, while tracks like Midnight Wings and Crimson Curtains show Usai’s affection for the works of filmmaker/composer John Carpenter (Crimson Curtains even features a collaboration with the filmmaker’s son Cody)
[rating=5]
Order Confrontational’s Kingdom of Night on Bandcamp.
Another essential listen for this month is the latest from NYC soundtrack revisionists Morricone Youth, releasing their live score for George Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead (performed last May at Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Cinema).
The score (available in limited edition green vinyl and digital download) sees the collective providing original music for the iconic zombie film. Opening track Driveway to the Cemetery pays homage to the original (stock) score of the film, while adding their own elements to alter the sonic topography.
Elsewhere, the group shifts things dramatically, from Barbra (which recalls the works of Italian soundtrack masters Goblin, who scored Romero’s Dawn of the Dead), the rollicking metal-tinged Traumatized and the ominous pulsating Beat’Em or Burn’Em. Album closer Another One For The Fire, is an appropriately melancholy post-rock dirge that epitomizes Living Dead’s game changing bleak ending.
[rating=5]
With the popularity of Netflix’s Stranger Things and its synth-score from S U R V I V E, electronic soundtracks are currently back in vogue, but Morricone Youth and Confrontational have been in the game for awhile, and deserve to bask in the spotlight of the synth-wave revival. Be sure to put them in your All Hallow’s Eve rotation.
Order Morricone Youth’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ via Amazon.