Midnight Syndicate - Monsters of Legend - 2013 [Kosjeyr]

From ABOUT MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE:

For almost two decades, composers Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka have been known as Midnight Syndicate, creating symphonic soundtracks to imaginary films that facilitate a transcendental and adventurous escape into the secret dimensions of the mind's eye. To many of their fans, they are Gothic music pioneers brewing a signature blend of orchestral horror music and movie-style sound effects. To others, they remain the first "haunted house band" that forever changed the Halloween music genre and became a staple of the October holiday season. And some know them as the duo that created the first official soundtrack to the legendary Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Their critically-acclaimed works are reminiscent of sweeping, complex masterpieces by artists such as James Horner, Danny Elfman, Black Sabbath and King Diamond and have been featured as a part of groundbreaking films, television shows, video games and at haunted attractions, amusement parks and live performances worldwide.

Founder Douglas' passion for making music was ignited when he listened to records by The Beatles on his kid-sized turntable and dreamed of composing epic scores like John Williams' Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Both he and Goszka grew up watching classic black and white horror films, listening to Vincent Price reading the tales of Edgar Allan Poe and Playing Dungeons & Dragons. They continued to fall in love with the world of horror, fantasy and the supernatural as they developed their own artistry: Douglas played piano and bass guitar, playing in rock band sand scoring student horror films in college and Goszka played keyboard in rock bands and went onto study classical composition and percussion in college. They eventually discovered ways to explore fantasy in literature, film and art through music.

In 1995, Douglas directed and wrote his first full-length horror film score to a thriller called The Dead Matter (1995), which helped set the principles of Midnight Syndicate in motion. In 2010, he went on to direct, score, and co-produce the remake of The Dead Matter alongside Robert Kurtzman (From Dusk Till Dawn, co-founder, KNB FX) and Gary Jones (Xena, Boogeyman 3). In 1997, he put together an album with the goal of providing a collection of "soundtracks to imaginary films." The collection presented many different narratives through a variety of genres, including classical, New Age and rock and was punctuated by sound effects. For the sophomore release, Born of the Night, Douglas decided to focus on a Midnight Syndicate album that would specifically appeal to gothic music fans, Halloween enthusiasts, and roleplaying gamers. It was at this time that he decided to partner with compelling solo artist Goszka, whom he had known since 1994.

Midnight Syndicate�s music has become integral to setting a powerful mood at top-rated haunted attractions and amusement parks as well as at costume shops, gaming and Halloween parties and Halloween-themed cruises from Siberia and Hong Kong, to Europe and the United States. In September, 2009, AOL released the Top 10 Best Halloween Music CDs of all time according to AOL/CBS Radio listeners. Three of the ten listed were Midnight Syndicate discs, which ranked lower only than Danny Elfman's Nightmare Before Christmas and John Carpenter's Halloween soundtracks. In 2003, Midnight Syndicate teamed up with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast to produce the first official soundtrack to the "Dungeons and Dragons" role-playing game. The band's music has also been used at Hugh Hefner's Halloween parties, on episodes of The Barbara Walters Special and in the drive-in film The Rage, Universal Studio's Horror Nights XVIII as well as by Monday Night Football and by artists Insane Clown Posse, Three Six Mafia, Twiztid and The Misfits.

Midnight Syndicate released many studio albums between 1997 and 2005, among them Midnight Syndicate, Born of the Night, Realm of Shadows, Gates of Delirium, Vampyre: Symphones from the Crypt and the multi award-winning The 13th Hour. In 2008, Douglas' and Goszka's tenth studio album, The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates came out as a preview to the 2010 remake of The Dead Matter film. That same year, Midnight Syndicate put together their first music video, a live performance of the song Dark Legacy, produced by Robert Kurtzman's Creature Crew and Screamline Studios and filmed in the haunted historic Phantasy Theatre in Lakewood, Ohio. The band's fourteenth studio album, Carnival Arcane (2011) was based on research into turn-of-the-20th-Century carnivals as well as the writings of Ray Bradbury and plays like a self-contained, vivid musical film. The disc garnered rave reviews from press and won Best Horror CD/Soundtrack at the 10th Annual Rondo Hatton Awards.

Midnight Syndicate continues to pursue its quest to use instrumental music to tell explicit stories full of tension, twists and turns. Most recently, the band released gothic music vocalist Destini Beard's A Time Forgotten, the follow-up to The Dark Masquerade, her first collaboration with Douglas and Goszka and completed the score to the grindhouse thriller Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan. In summer, 2013, Midnight Syndicate released the soundtrack to that film along with Monsters of Legend, a tribute to the classic Universal, Hammer and Euro horror films that gave birth to horror cinema. Featuring cover art showcasing original Universal Monster images with an epic sound to match, the disc has immediately become one of, if not the band's most critically-acclaimed album to date. Visit the Midnight Syndicate Store to see and hear more!

--- Julia Rogers