John Carpenter’s ‘Cathedral’ Review: The Master of Horror gives his synthwave sound a metal makeover for graphic novel soundtrack.
John Carpenter is more than just a filmmaker behind some of the most iconic and influential horror and sci-fi films ever made. His creativity has never been confined to the director’s chair. He’s a filmmaker, composer, musician, and storyteller who infuses all his work with his unique sonic and visual signature.
Over the past decade or so, Carpenter has increasingly explored his musical side. Alongside his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, he’s created the Lost Themes albums, scored the last three Halloween films, and reworked his most famous film scores. The Lost Themes records were soundtracks to movies that exist somewhere in Carpenter’s imagination.
His new album Cathedral takes that idea a step further. This time there is a graphic novel to accompany the music. It’s the tale of unspeakable evil trapped deep underneath a church, and the soundtrack adds a sense of deep foreboding to the experience.
Each track corresponds to a chapter in the story. The combined mediums offer a unique narrative experience. And while Cathedral certainly works as a companion piece to the graphic novel, the best thing about the album is that it doesn’t need the book to justify its existence.
Cathedral is the 10th album Carpenter has made with Cody and Davies, and it feels like a bit of an evolution. Carpenter’s eerie synths are still front and center, but Davies’ guitar work pushes the trio further into metal territory than they’ve gone before. There have always been guitars in their music, and Carpenter’s film scores have occasionally flirted with heavier sounds (In the Mouth of Madness, Ghosts of Mars), but here the guitars aren’t just an accent. They’re a major part of the experience, and it intertwines perfectly with their inimitable synthwave aesthetic.
“Primeval” gets things started with mournful guitar before kicking into a combination of New Wave of British Heavy Metal-style riffing and bass-heavy synths. It’s a great introduction to what Cathedral is doing differently. Then “Identity” brings us back to more familiar territory with the kind of eerie Carpenter synth-scapes that evokes isolation and paranoia.
“Inside Out” recalls the Prince of Darkness theme, which seems especially appropriate given the story’s combination of religion and ancient evil. The track builds with haunting choral elements, ominous synths, and thick, doomy guitar riffs.
“Abandoned Cathedral” takes an even more atmospheric approach, with ornate synths that almost sound orchestral. Then comes “Elevator,” which is vintage Carpenter, with ominous synths, plodding beat and huge, strident washes of sound that feel like they could have been pulled from Escape from New York. “Elevator 2” continues the descent, pairing undulating synths with guttural guitar riffing.
“The Mapmaker” has a pulsing, sinister atmosphere, while “Desolation in the Underworld” might be the most traditionally “Carpenter” moment on the album. It’s cinematic in a way that immediately feels familiar, built around a plaintive melody that has the melancholy quality of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (a track that also inspired his classic Halloween theme). It reminds you why Carpenter’s music works so well, even without a movie attached to it.
As the album progresses, so does its intensity. The urgent, ascending “Revenge” provides the musical backdrop for a fight scene, while “The Ferryman” digs deeper into the mythology surrounding the story. Then there’s “Lord of the Underground,” the album’s heaviest moment. The song features elements of thrash, industrial and Gothic metal, but it still sounds completely at home alongside Carpenter’s synths.
The album ends with “Resolution,” and the title couldn’t be more appropriate. Carpenter’s movies rarely give you the comfort of a completely tidy ending. Even when the immediate threat appears to be defeated, there’s often the sense that something is still out there.
Cathedral captures that same feeling. The story may have reached its conclusion, but the tension doesn’t completely disappear. The threat is over…for now, but there is a disquieting sense of uncertainty that lingers long after the album ends.
That’s ultimately what makes Cathedral such an interesting project. It’s a graphic novel and an album, but it’s also an attempt to recreate the experience of watching a John Carpenter movie without actually making one. The music and story are meant to be experienced together, and the result is probably the closest we’ve gotten to a new Carpenter film since his last movie in 2010.
Even if you never pick up the graphic novel, Cathedral is still worth hearing. It’s a strong album on its own, and another excellent collaboration between Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies.
Cathedral is a creative tour de force, culminating in a unique multimedia experience. It’s also another solid entry in the trio’s formidable catalogue, making one curious about what other sonic experiments they have in store for us.
Cathedral the graphic novel will be released August 4 on Storm King Comics. Cathedral the album will be released August 7 on Sacred Bones Records
