No thread for Goblin?

There is really nothing else in movies like watching an Argento film and that crazy organ and drum music starts up and you know someone is going to die.

I've got the DRG Collection Their Hits, Rare Tracks & Outakes Collection 1975-1989 but it's not as good as hearing it in the context of the films.

Claudio sent me a signed poster of him wearing leather pants (and yellow monster eyes) in an effort to woo me into booking his current band Daemonia.

That is what I thought....that maybe the music didn't sound as good when separated from the film.

I think you should book the man's band.

And I don't know, the music sounds pretty awesome to me separate from the films (of which, admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of). Suspiria, especially, holds up really well.

"That is what I thought....that maybe the music didn't sound as good when separated from the film."

It doesn't (I mean really how could it?), but it still sounds pretty great on its own.

I think there's a Goblin tribute band playing in London on Friday week! Can't be a big market.

If I believe that Daemonia could make big $$ in the US for Claudio, I would book him in a heartbeat. Much respect to the man... but he's used to getting the red carpet treatment in Europe and that's just not how it is here... :(

"Anyone care to re-visit this one? I'd like to know more about what's good here...also anything else in Italian horror music. Thanks!"

The Cherry Red comp is an excellent overview of Goblin's career.
Morricone did more than a couple of very good horror soundtracks back in the early 70's - check among the others "Il gatto a 9 code", "Una lucertola dalla pelle di donna" and "Gli occhi freddi della paura" (a total avant-garde/ psych jazz assault). Also, Fabio Frizzi (who scored Fulci's The Beyond - Zombi took a lot from him too) and Riz Ortolani (Cannibal Holocaust).

Claudio should tour the disco stuff.

I've been on a massive Goblin kick recently (music is funny that way, when you hear a sample of something you know used in another piece, and you *have* to go listen to the original instead.)

It still totally works, even separated from the film - but, you know, you have to like your mad Euro-prog. Suspiria is just... man, sometimes I get scared a bit listening to that on mine own late at night.

I think there's a Goblin tribute band playing in London on Friday week! Can't be a big market.

― Matt #2, Thursday, 12 February 2009 00:07 (9 hours ago) Permalink

they're playing tomorrow - http://www.last.fm/event/897924

I haven't looked, but I bet it's at the Underworld... fnar.

Wrong. The Old Blue Last. Bah, I hate that place.

But... man, why did I agree to go on a stupid blind date tomorrow? I'd MUCH rather go see a Goblin tribute band. Maybe I can cancel. (This is probably why I'm still single.)

I put on Il Goblini last year, it was a bunch of fun!

I take it everyone knows about this?

Know it? I'm at it, having just arrived in Birmingham.

Yowzah!

Please give us an honest live review. I'm concerned that they might be kinda lightweight on stage these days...

With a "notorious Japanese band, Corruption". Must have been something.

yes! got wrecked with a mate last night and he bought us tickets this morning, cant fucking wait. Any reports from brum?

Sorry, I misread the link and at the Brum show, not the London one. They don't play till 11 tonight, will try and report soonest.

Looking forward to hearing about this.

Goblin have just finished. It might have been because the sound had been mostly set up for doom acts all weekend, but if anything I could have done with it being less heavy, and with more keys. In other words, any suggestion of them being lightweights is WAY off the mark. Anyone going tomorrow is in for a treat. New stuff sounds totally like Zombi, by the way. I know, snake eating its tail and all that.

Saw their first comeback gig in Austria a few months ago. I didn't know their stuff and I have never seen any Argento films, so I was coming to them cold and I was distinctly unimpressed. To my ears they sounded like a poor man’s Genesis (a group I love), their widdly guitar and keyboards got on my nerves after a while as did the watery and pedestrian melodies.

See Suspiria. If you can't see it on the big screen, jack up the volume as hard as the neighbors can take it.

I imagine Goblin aren't very good at being Genesis (though they are from the prog era) - maybe they pulled out a different set for a Doomster audience?

Set was surprisingly Suspiria light. Centred mainly on Profondo Rosso, with a couple of tracks from the latest album and the main theme from Zombi. Really not much guitar widdling at all, spiralling keyboards kept low in the mix. New stuff in particular has some real blasting guitar, just single tone blurts across it like a doom/dirge outfit (although not as minor key).

I was totally prepared for it to be a shocker but I thought it was pretty rad and yeah, large riffage

brilliant, cant wait

Checking out the Supersonic line-up . . blimey! We have a circuit of freaky music festivals up here in Scotland, but over the last few years they seem to have disappeared up the blind alley of having lots performance artists doing REALLY INTERESTING things with amplified styrofoam.

I loved them at Supersonic. Highlight of the weekend for me I think. I was also coming completely cold; never heard them before, only the most layman's conception of what they are like, but I was mightily impressed. They were so incredibly tight and polished and the sound quality was amazing. Nowhere near lightweight either.

Wow the London gig was amazing! They actually got a good sound in the Scala, which is a first. I have to say the drummer is one of the best I've seen in a long time, superb control and power.

man on the "they couldn't have done it without Goblin but they sure are pretty great" tip there's an act called Umberto basically biting Goblin hard enough to draw blood but wow do they kick ass at it. They're one of those CDr/cassette label bands. Their From the Grave is a wonderful rainy night listen, I can attest.

I like the name.

Oh yeah. I can definitely feel that.

oh man here they are redoing "profundo rosso" live in the studio recently - if you dig this stuff like I do prepare to go ape

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEcyYuAV3mg&feature=player_embedded#!

heavy

They were really great at Supersonic last year.

Awesome.

It just kills me that I could be booking Goblin's first ever US tour, if they were realistic about their popularity in the US. They just aren't a household name here.

Not Goblin, but Black Hole - an Italian band hugely influenced by Goblin that recorded a wonderfully naive psych metal album back in 1985.
Hilarious English pronounciation, sub-basement sound quality and a couple of great horror rock songs: as good as the best Paul Chain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edk885QCCBA

A review from the Corroseum site:

It's a common misunderstanding that BLACK HOLE play Doom Metal. They don't, they play DOOOOOOOOOHMMM! In case you don't know the difference between Doom Metal and DOOOOOOOOOHMMM!, let me explain: Doom Metal is basically a rather tastefull slow version of classic Heavy and/or Epic Metal with more or less 70's SABBATHical vibes. DOOOOOOOOOHMM! is the cobweb on your mommy's tombstone, the disturbed little boy dissecting kittens in the basement, the creepy crawly thing that ate the monster under your bed... Needless to say, DOOOOOOOOOHMMM! kick Doom Metal's ass. BLACK HOLE could not have come from any other country than Italy. Although highly unique, many musical parallells can be drawn. The DEATH SS/Paul Chain comparison is obvious, but BH beats them silly simply because they write better songs. You can tell they have worked alot on the construction of the pieces to create that perfect mysterious glow, and they've managed to do so without making the music more complicated than necessary. Strange, psychedelic guitar effects and keyboards are used in plenty without them loosing any of their heaviness. The primitive, surrealistic graphix and the weird bandphoto, set in a mourge with the band standing over a child coffin adds the final touches to make "Land Of Mystery" one of the most eerie and original records in Metal history. The only other bands I know that occationally came close to this sound where LESTER MADDOX, PAGAN ALTAR and ICE CROSS (the coolest and most evil early 70's band ever)! Are we in the mood now? Right then, let's talk songs: "Demoniac City" is kind of an oddball. A mid-paced NWOBHMish song which isn't really doomy in a traditional sense. On first listening it is a minor letdown and definitely the weakest song on the album. However with it's eerie production and original vocals it sets you in the right mood. The song grows with every listening and makes the journey into the fiery pits of DOOOOOOOOOHMMM!-music a little easier on the senses. Trust me, you'll be thankful for that easy start when the mighty "Land of Mystery" hits you like 10 tons of rotting body parts on your sorry arse. Pure Power Sludge! Epic D...-riffing and a mighty chorus that will make Stoner fans weep in despair. After this hit song we go into the deepest heart of BLACK HOLE dementia: "All My Evil" is an orgy in skeewed and crooked harmonies & riffs, very offbeat, very ghoulish and very, very good. "Bells Of Death" is not a DEATH SS-cover, but it could be. "More fun than an open casket funeral..." as The Accüsed so elegantly put it. Another unusual twist is that the B-side surpasses the A-side in greatness. "Blind Men and Occult Forces" - what a genious title for a D...-track. It's like a long, slow and slithering walk down into hell, and suddenly when the chorus comes you are pushed over the edge into the fiery pit by unseen hands. Burn, baby, burn.... "Spectral World" is perhaps my favourite track. It's the slowest piece on the album and with it's psychedelic vibes, maybe the least metallic, but the harmonies are midblowing and totally wins you over to the dark side. The last song is an istrumental. It starts off in the same psyche mood as the song before, but gets heavier at the end and it kinda makes you think those classic METALLICA-instrumentals like "Call of Chtulu" or "Orion" ...if they had been recorded back in '69 in a Transylvanian opium den, that is. Almost 10 minutes long and never a boring second. Main man Robert Measles recorded a second BH album in the early 90's, "Living Mask", which was released a few years ago on CD. Unfortunately it's a disappointment. Here he uses a drum machine which he really doesn't master. At its worst moments it sounds alot like the first album by the infamous DAMIEN STORM(!). The CD is still worth checking out because of the '86 "Angel of Lucifer" demo that is included. The title song is one of the band's greatest moments and well worth the full CD price.

You should check this album out if you like your Goblin, Jacula, Antonius Rex etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDCX_VTLxSU

interesting. digging these clips and I LOVE that cover.

not familiar with antonius rex, jacula, or paul chain however. any recommendations?

I love it when the Suspiria theme gets all keyboardy in the second half or so of the version I have. Justice for prog!

digging these clips and I LOVE that cover.

cover's great, but the music isn't quite doing it for me. some good ideas, but few memorable riffs or hooks, and there's an exhausted quality to the whole thing that keeps me at a distance. maybe i'd like it better if the youtube quality wasn't so shitty...

I'm kind of into that, actually. have been listening to dwarr and these clips have a similar lo-fi, homemade epics quality to them. (not the youtube compression but the production in a broader sense.)

was thinking of dwarr while listening to black hole. similar vibe and lost-in-time appeal. and i guess you could say that some of dwarr's stuff sounds "exhausted," too, but not in quite the same way. dwarr has that miasmic, despairing atmosphere, but there's an energy and tension to it that keeps me hooked. didn't get that from black hole. just felt like they were trudging through the motions, with some good ideas but little personality. but i dunno. i've spent the last half hour reacting negatively to REM and armond white, too, so maybe i'm just having a day...

oh, totally. well put, and by the same token, I have a big tolerance for this type of sound and find it hard to be critical. I just love the idea of weirdo loner bands like bathory and dwarr using the rudimentary tools they have available to make things sound as BIG and DRAMATIC as possible. sure, black hole fall short of those guys, but I can still get with the vibe. ymmv.

"dwarr has that miasmic, despairing atmosphere, but there's an energy and tension to it that keeps me hooked. didn't get that from black hole"

As a big fan of Dwarr, I agree completely but, just like Alan said, what makes Black Hole interesting is their insular/ dilettante-ish quality.
Obviously they couldn't rock, operated in this sort of void that is the Italian "rock" scene, still they came up with this weird, morbidly liquid atmosphere - very much the aural equivalent of one of those Lucio Fulci movies, where you can see awful and beautiful sequences edited together almost randomly.
Despite the English lyrics, there's a truly Italian feel in this music and I'm just sorry bands like these have been forgotten and didn't have any real followers.

ps Jacula and Antonius Rex are the brainchild of the same guy, Antonio Bartoccetti: again esoteric obsessions, some prog leanings, super slow proto-doom metal riffs with laughable spoken words and some surprisingly clever touch.
Paul Chain was the guitarist of Death SS: his first EP "Detaching from Satan" is excellent, lo-fi psychedelic metal with lyrics sung in an invented language. Definitely less Jandek-like, but still weird.

Jacula "U.F.D.E.M."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEyWQGx3rac

Antonius Rex "Aquila non capit muscas"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05WffbTn0Qc

I'm still puzzled why they all can't get along and play in the same version of the same band.

Because they probably all fell out over money and don't trust each other, no doubt with good reason.

I heard that Simonetti's Goblin is all long leather coats and Cradle Of Filth guitars, I could be wrong. The other version with the original guitarist, bassist and drummer is the one that played in the UK a few years ago. I've got lost with it now, no idea which version is touring the US.

That's totally bizarre because it seems to be the same exact thing happening with the Hawkwind reunion (the Chicago show was postponed to March because it had caused Dave Brock so much stress induced illness?!) Nic Turner's Space Ritual Hawkwind Assembly is playing here in like a week too.

Didn't Brock lose the rights to the name in the US? Ah who knows, you get more drama with these old bands than when they were young and actually making worthwhile music.

I thought Projekcts was King Crimson split into different bands?

Claudio Simonetti, Massimo Morante and Maurizio Guarini were at the Glasgow, Scotland 2011 gig for sure. The Scotsman (of all places) has an interview with Simonetti from that time, including talk of the unstable lineup...
http://www.scotsman.com/news/interview-goblin-prog-rock-band-1-1494605

Looking for details on that gig, I see that they played the Phenomena theme, which I was not familiar with at the time and when I finally saw that film I didnt know I had heard it before; I wish I had known it before the gig because I love that tune. Interestingly, some of the performances got put on a Tenebre dvd.

I also recall that whoever was controlling the background screen made a terrible job of it, the clips kept stopping and showing a dvd menu behind the band.

I've only heard Suspiria, Deep Red, Tenebre, Phenomena, Dawn Of The Dead, Roller and the Libra - Shock album (I think they did stuff for The Church and Terror At The Opera but I cant remember any of it).

Is there anything else as ambitious as Suspiria? Because that one seems totally different from the others, especially the range of sounds used.

the soundtrack to the suspiria laserdisc is still to this day one of the most phenomenal things i've ever heard. sound/audio-wise. jaw-dropping sound.

I've seen the film plenty of times but whenever I looked for the album it was always oddly expensive for something so big a classic. Does anyone know why you never see it in shops? I've seen quite a few of their other albums in stores but never Suspiria oddly.

i have the dvd set that includes a compact disc of the soundtrack. you could probably find that online. anchor bay? i can't remember.

just a quick search and here's one for 25 bucks on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suspiria-DVD-2001-3-Disc-Set-Limited-Edition-out-of-print-dario-argento-/221295636350?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item33863f6f7e

probably find one cheaper if you look.

I bought my latest version from eMusic, no idea if it's easily available in the physical. Before that I had the anthology DRG disc with a handful of tracks from each film.

the anchor bay 3-disc set is well worth getting.

The rival Goblins should tour like the Gallagher brothers and have a Goblin 1 & a Goblin 2. They should also incorporate watermelon smashing into their live act.

skull smashing more like

there was a 6 cd box set out (in uk at least) just last christmas that had suspiria as one of the discs.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Awakening-Goblin/dp/B0094GMS24/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381825579&sr=8-1&keywords=goblin

(has gone up a bit since i bought mine)

actually, single disc is £12

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suspiria-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B003H3D2C0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1381825662&sr=8-9&keywords=goblin

Yes, I have noticed it becoming more affordable recently, I'll probably get it in a few days.

So this was finally addressed:

To avoid unpleasant misunderstanding we are sorry to announce that Claudio Simonetti, Bruno Previtali and Titta Tani will not be present in the line up of the next Goblin tour in the United States, it seemed right to inform all our fans.
This was an amazing and unrepeatable tour!!!

(The link itself might or might not work but it was up and saying that earlier today; post itself was from Wednesday.)

The "next" tour? Does that mean the leg with Zombi opening?

Saw Goblin when they came thru Portland on Saturday. Great show. It was really endearing, they seemed to be so happy to be up there.

No real set surprises, they played most of Roller up front (although I didn't recognize a lot of it) and then dove into the segmented soundtrack parts towards the last half.

Profondo Rosso killed.

So is the non-Claudio version worth seeing? They are playing Worcester MA in July.

I imagine they are much like the non-anybody anything bands, perfectly fine.

But I think there are three other actual members in this band IIRC.

They were great when they played in London a few years ago.

Looking at Claudio's Facebook page I think it actually may be his lineup on tour right now: https://m.facebook.com/claudiosimonettiII?fref=nf

Just got back from a screening of L'Inferno (1911) with accompaniment by Maurizio Guarini. I don't know anything about Goblin or their other soundtrack work, but the total effect was stunning.

this is an all-around awesome jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHhpYE4Ap4I

love these guys

Guarini is returning to AFI Silver to accompany L'Inferno (https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/m-0100002202) and Nosferatu (https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/m-0100000238).

For those who missed it on the obituaries thread, RIP Massimo Morante. The bandana king is no more!

https://pitchfork.com/news/massimo-morante-goblin-founder-and-guitarist-dead-at-70/

I was at this Goblin performance in Glasgow. As others have noted here, on the night they were really surprisingly loud and heavy - it was quite a smart and effective updating of their original sound. Really glad I went. RIP Massimo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ConNBa3HSIM