GOBLIN

For many Goblin fans, this one falls through the cracks and many never run across it. Like Roller, it is one of their rare non-soundtrack albums. This time it is a concept album based on the life of Mark, a beetle who trundles through life, an allegory for heroin addicts of that era in Italy-1978? ( 'Bagorozzo translates to roughly worthless person in slang.) The music is excellent throughout, and the album finishes with what is perhaps one of their strongest pieces in their catalog, E Suono Rock. For those who only have heard Suspiria and Profondo Rosso, there's nothing here that is too drastically different, but the addition of Massimo Morante's vocals can be a sticking point for some who are used to the all instrumental output of the band. Overall, this album is very strong from front to back, and is woefully undernoticed by Goblin fans. While it is not as overtly creepy as some of their soundtrack work, and can be downright cheery at times, My best way of describing Goblin to the uninitiated is 'a possessed Mike Oldfield'. It is recommended for prog fans of all stripes. four stars (Goblin is currently touring America winter 2024 so check local venues)

Il Fantastico Viaggo is one of the best Goblin albums when it comes to pure music. The music is creative and well executed. We hear occasional vocals by Morante which is not a terrific added value but does not insult either. Thankfully, Goblin abandoned the cold experimenting from "Suspiria" and sticks to real music. This time, it is primarily a keyboard-driven progressive rock. Fusion is less present, I'm neutral about it because although I like fusion a lot, it could be a bit distracting from the typical Goblin soundtrack music. Goblin excels in crafting symphonic prog ("Terra di Goblin", "Un ragazzo d'argento") and delivers some really quirky complex prog with "La Danza". There are less successful moments like "Opera magnifica" with theatrical vocals but nothing that needs disposing of. If you're looking for a non-instrumental prog album by Goblin, then start here.

The soundtrack music on Suspiria goes a step away from progressive rock and borrows more heavily from the horror side of things. The band is actually more experimental (second track and other short tracks) but that goes at the expense of good music, in this case. "Markos" opens door to an electronic-friendly music with busy drumming and steady repeated synths. My highlights are the title track, the more traditional instrumented "Black Forest" and somewhat Brand X sounding fusion of "Blind concert". The various remix tracks here are non-essential but curiously, "Suspiria (Daemonia remix)" sounds like a prog-metal piece (heavy bass drum and prog metal synths).

Roller has a pretty non-soundtrack name and is a regular album, in fact. It is the most prog-rock compliant album with great instrumental playing and solid music, which, as other Goblin works, remains atmospheric. The first, title track, is an accessible classical music inspired (chords) piece, with church organ and drums providing the backbone. "Aquaman" is lighter and looser with fine electric guitar, has a soundtrack vibe. Then comes a playful jazz-rock number "Snip snap" with moog/Rhodes giving grooves but the drummer contributing greatly with funky beats. The next track again provides a variety by applying piano, acoustic guitar, to other electric counterparts.

Apart from the title track, "Goblin" is the second highlight to me, this 11 minute track standing well on its own. Stylistically, it borrows quite heavily from mid-70's Italian prog. Simonetti provides a good ride with synth leads and drummer accelerates to a 100km/h towards the end before returning to the symphonic motive. Perhaps the best Goblin track. "Dr. Frankenstein" is a fusion number, focused more on playing than composition but what a drive! Easily 4 or 4.5 stars.

The legendary Italian prog band GOBLIN was born in 1973 (according to the liner notes of this 6 CD box, not in 1972 as the band bio says) when keyboardist Claudio Simonetti and guitarist Massimo Morante recorded some demos at Simonetti's studio. Some time later a quartet named CHERRY FIVE recorded their eponymous album (1975), and at this point they were suggested to film maker Dario Argento "who was looking for a rock group to augment the soundtrack of his new movie, Profondo Rosso (Deep Red); the original plan being that they would merely arrange and perform the music of Italian jazz legend Giorgio Gaslini, who had already begun working on the film with an orchestral score." After Gaslini had quarrelled with Argento and left the project, the director turned to the band who, with changes in the line-up, was now renamed as GOBLIN.

The liner notes I am citing are not very long, just two pages of the 12-page booklet, but they summarize quite well the represented era of Goblin (1975 -- 1982). At the end of his notes, Claudio Fuiano only points out that the full story is "labyrinthical and more than fascinating", and mentions several books written on the band.

Each of the six discs in this regular-size cardboard box set contain one album plus a varying amount of bonus tracks. Four of the albums are, not surprisingly, soundtracks for horror films. The remaining two are the group's highest regarded album Roller (1976) and "a concept album on the burning issue of drugs", Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark (1978). Although I wasn't in advance familiar with Goblin's output outside of Roller and a few separate movie themes, I think the set is well chosen. Judged by the PA album ratings, the weaker works of the timeline (such as 1979 soundtracks Amo Non Amo and Patrick, or the poor album Volo, 1982) are left out. Goblin continued recording soundtracks also after Tenebre (1982), but they seem to be weaker as well. True, there are plenty of spare room on these discs, and another kind of compiling strategy might have been interesting, but at least this is a clear approach, concentrating on one album per disc.

Profondo Rosso (1975), originally just half an hour long, is perhaps the best of these soundtrack albums. One track ('Mad Puppet', I guess) interestingly reminds me of a section in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, and another track is deliciously jazzy. On this disc the amount of bonuses is vast (27 tracks!), all from the film or at least recorded for it, ie. mostly variations on the album's themes, over and over again. For a non-completist it all gets a bit frustrating really. The most interesting ones are subtitled as Jazz Sources. If you've seen the film (I haven't), you'll probably remember the Lullaby theme. Here you can choose from several versions: with a child's voice, with a celesta, etc.

The 2nd (Roller) disc's two bonus track are both sides of a single made for RAI's TV programme titled Chi? The 3rd disc is devoted to Goblin's second Dario Argento sountrack, Suspiria (1977) which has a cult film status. I haven't seen it. The music has an essential role in creating the horror atmosphere. Only five bonuses this time: an alternate take on the title theme and four other very brief tracks. Since these O.S.T. albums were so short originally, one wonders how come so much material was left out (whether they were actually heard on the films or not).

The non-movie concept album Il Fantastico... (1978) was actually a positive surprise for me. It features vocals to make it interestingly different from both Roller and the soundtracks, but musically it is pretty solid and eclectic in style. Disc Five is devoted to the soundtrack for George A. Romero's Zombi -- Dawn of the Dead (1978). Not as good as an album as the previous soundtracks. The last one is again a collaboration with Dario Argent, Tenebre (1982), and the music contains some interesting showcases of the flexible, jazz-sensitive style of Goblin.

A dedicated fan probably already has the majority of the music, and I'm rather skeptical of the appeal of the very repetitive bonuses. Nevertheless, this box set gathers together Goblin's finest music. 3½ stars actually.

"Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" (English translation: "The Fantastic Journey of the Beetle Mark") is the 4th full-length studio album by Italian progressive rock artist Goblin. The album was released through Cinevox Records in 1978. It´s the successor to "Suspiria" from 1977. Unlike its predecessor "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is not a soundtrack album, but instead a concept album telling the story of a flying bug named Mark and his colorful adventures in the imaginary land of Goblin. Two of the tracks from the album ("La danza" and "Notte") were however used on the soundtrack for the George A. Romero 1978 horror movie "Martin" (known internationally as "Wampyr").

"Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is the first Goblin to feature vocals (at least traditional singing with lyrics), which are performed by guitarist Massimo Morante. He has a pleasant voice and can sing both melodic, theatrical/paatos filled (in the typical Italian tradition), and a little more raw and hard rocking when that is called for. Considering this is his first vocal performance with Goblin he does a great job here.

Stylistically the material on "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is symphonic progressive rock. An organic and well playing rhythm section, both electic and acoustic guitars (and some very well played guitar solos), and loads of synths and keyboards. I hear influences form artists like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis here and there, but Goblin manage to create a relatively distinct sound. Goblin bring a few electronic elements, a couple of saxophone solos, and a disco beat to the table too, but those aren´t dominant elements, and the music here is predominantly early 70s influenced symphonic progressive rock.

One of the great assets of "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is the warm, organic, and detailed sound production, which does exactly what the best sound productions are supposed to do. Present the material in the best possible way for the listener to enjoy. So upon conclusion "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is a high quality release by Goblin and one of the few musical adventures they took outside making music specifically for movies ("Roller (1976)" is the other example and of course also the 1975 album they released under the Cherry Five monicker before changing their name to Goblin). It´s a bit of a shame they didn´t expore this sound a bit more, but the fact that the album was mared by poor album sales probably didn´t give them much motivation to continue down this road, when they could make money making soundtrack music. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Revenge

If I remember correctly my first exposure to Goblin was on the soundtrack album The Church, which I listened to only because of the tracks by Keith Emerson on it. The Goblin tracks did not impress me much on that occasion as they seemed to function mostly like transportation between the more interesting Emerson tracks. Goblin is mostly known for their movie sound tracks (for horror movies in particular) a genre of music that usually does little for me.

Fast forward to today, I stumbled on this 2019 album by a version of Goblin called "Claudio Simonetti's Goblin" and I was impressed. What we have here is a very nice instrumental album of symphonic progressive rock album with elements of electronica, jazz fusion, and heavy rock/metal. The focal point is Claudio Simonetti's powerful keyboard work, which incidentally reminds a bit of the aforementioned god Keith Emerson. The rest of the band is strong too with distinct bass lines, powerful drumming, and heavy guitar.

The cover art references Goblin's 1976 album Roller which is one of the few by them that I have actually heard. After hearing this excellent album, I will certainly dig deeper as I found myself enjoying The Devil Is Back a lot and I am a bit surprised that it has not received any previous reviews.

Highly recommended

Life has a funny way of taking many of us on a completely different course than what was expected. Claudio Simonetti was born in Brazil of Italian heritage and after returning to the homeland of Italy never even considered the world of musical soundtracks but rather was more interested in the progressive rock scene that had emerged from the European scene in the late 60s and early 70s however once he crossed paths with Dario Argento, the Italian filmmaker who specialized in a certain niche genre of horror films, his destiny was forever altered. Simonetti's fortune changed fairly quickly in his musical career.

After a short stint with the band Cherry Five which released one self-titled album in 1975, Simonetti shifted gears to his more famous curator of creepy sounds for some of Italy's most blood curdling and hair raising cult films. After changing the band's name to GOBLIN, the new musical outfit found great success with its debut release "Profondo Rosso (Deep Red)" and cemented a mutually beneficial relationship between GOBLIN and Argento who was seeking such talent to provide some sound scores for his revival of the Italian film genre called giallo which often mixed crime fiction, sexploitation and psychological horror along with slasher elements and supernatural phenomena. It proved to be a marriage made in heaven.

After the success of the first collaboration, GOBLIN took the opportunity to nurture Simonetti's true passion of creating a bona fide progressive rock album and 1976 saw the release of "Roller," one of the band's scant few examples of an album not influenced by the film industry. Despite intentions to continue down this path, Argento kept the band diverted from that path and steered GOBLIN back to crafting the score for 1978's supernatural horror film SUSPIRIA which was partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay "Suspiria De Profundis" (Sighs From The Depths).

Although Argento was already riding high on the Italian film scene with one box office smash after another, GOBLIN proved to be the extra icing on the cake that catapulted both director and band into new levels of fame and fortune however the soundtrack which GOBLIN crafted seems to have eclipsed the film as the decades have elapsed and has gone down in history. It has has become one of the most successful horror film soundtracks to have ever been scored and a major influence on such disparate bands ranging from Mogwai and Secret Chiefs 3 to all the countless GOBLIN splinter groups that are too numerous to even keep track of.

With the suggestive power of Argento, GOBLIN crafted a unique mix of disparate genres that included the creepy sounds of horror synth with the subtle sophistication of 70s progressive electronic most famously experienced by the likes of Tangerine Dream. GOBLIN fused the mood enhancing ominous sound effects with the intricate constructs of progressive rock and teased them all into mysterious experimental pieces that fit into the confines of the film's script. The results of all this were that the music not only made the film infinitely more interesting than it would have been otherwise but is one of those cases where the musical score has become more popular and influential than the film it represented.

The title track beings the score with creepy chiming that reminds me of the chilling Satanic overtones of films like "Rosemary's Baby" but the track also implements some freaky demonic whispers and a talking drum as it ratchets up a terrifying nightmare inducing sort of lullaby that continues throughout the film's run. Eerie synthesizer runs add murderous atmospheric vibes in the background thus generating the proper subliminal psychological torture. The track also excels in hypnotic repetition that allows a rhythmic pummelation of the senses while creepy pulsating Moog synthesizers slink around like a bloodthirsty vampire seeking out its next victim.

The tracks differ substantially and although each represents a certain moment in the film itself, the soundtrack flows together brilliantly in the most effective manner. The second track "Witch" provides a haunting blend of jittery percussion and possessed vocal utterances emerging from the synthesized avant-garde swirls of sound. "Sighs" contains a terrifying mix of hellish torturous vocals emerging from a cauldron of bouzouki strumming whereas "Markos" focuses on a more Berlin School style of progressive electronic run of synth stabs along with a frenetic display of various percussive sounds having a demonic conversation with a Moog that sounds like Keith Emerson joined Black Sabbath. The percussion sounds evoke an exorcism of hell which floods the 3D with evil astral entities.

"Black Forest" and "Blind Concert" were originally separate tracks but often appear as a single one on newer remastered versions. The former takes on a jazzier big with guest saxophonist Antonio Marangolo although remains in creepsville by displaying the plethora of mellotrons, organs and moog sounds, also contains some of the most authentic "rock" elements. The latter adds some funk elements that contrast with the freaky synthesized counterpoints and irregular chiming elements that slink in and out of the scene. At times the synth-funk sounds like a highly intoxicated version Herbie Hancock a la the "Headhunter" era. The soundtrack ends with a piano based waltz appropriately called "Death Valzer" and comes across as something heard in the soundtrack of the film "The Sting."

From a prog perspective perhaps not as scary as albums such as Univers Zero's mind-bending "Heresie" or some more modern albums by Deathspell Omega or other experimental artists, nevertheless GOBLIN constructed a successful mastery of horror film ethos within a melodic synth rock context. The album was groundbreaking at the time because it was very rare to hear synthesizers in any film scores at all and after SUSPIRIA, it became common place. Most scores hitherto were often accompanied by elaborate orchestras or other classical arrangements. SUSPIRIA was a great success and pretty much made GOBLIN the horror film soundtrack stars that they still continue to be some two decades on in the 21st century but despite the many scores having been produced since, none rings as true to the source as SUSPIRIA which remains the chosen top dog of horror film scores and with that conclusion i cannot argue.

While GOBLIN has become one of Italy's greatest exports of horror synth prog in the niche of soundtrack music, the band has also released a scant few bona fide progressive rock albums outside the context of Dario Argento's commissioning of products. Following in the vein of the Cherry Five years, GOBLIN took the opportunity to release a non-soundtrack oriented album after the unexpected success of the band's debut "Profondo Rosso" soundtrack. ROLLER took the liberty of dishing out all the prog chops that one would expect from a serious prog band of the 70s but one can't erase what came before completely and the album retains a bit of the creepy blood curdling vibes of the soundtrack that preceded. In many ways ROLLER could be taken as just a mere warm up for the band's phenomenally successful and lauded followup album / soundtrack "Suspira" as it has the seedlings of the haunting vibes to come as well as returning to its Cherry Five roots only blowing them away manyfold.

ROLLER is an interesting mix of what the spectacular 70s prog rock scene had to offer and GOBLIN pulls it off with remarkable grace and technical wizardry. Only consisting of six tracks which includes in the 11-minute-plus spectacular thriller "Goblin," yeah the song which ironically is the same as the band! For the most part ROLLER is a somewhat chilled out album with occasional energetic outbursts. The main melodic drive is generated from the double keyboard sensations generated by Claudio Simonetetti and Maurizio Guarini. Generally speaking one takes on the role of percussive keyboard drive ranging from staccato riffing stabs to beautiful piano rolls while the other generates an intense atmospheric backdrop. The other star of the show is surely bassist Fabio Pignatelli whose rhythmic chops are tantamount to the Italian version of Chris Squire with powerful nosedives up and down the scales but always keeping the backbone of the melodic marches in tact. BTW this is a completely instrumental affair.

The title track initiates the listener into the mid-tempo grooves that are generated throughout ROLLER. Two keyboardists, one bassist and a phenomenal drumming style dished out by Agostino Marnagolo take the scaffolding of the tunes into orbit while Massimo Morante adds subtle textures of guitar sounds to the mix ranging from Steve Hackett styled pastoral prog in the form of acoustic and electric guitars to more skillful soloing out of the Pink Floyd playbook. At key moments he also takes the liberty to unleash some serious guitar wankery that takes the musical prowess far beyond the space rock world into borderline hard rock. "Aquaman" delivers an interesting dripping effect of the keys while nurturing a Floydish style of guitar playing in the context of space rock. "Snip-Snap" jumps ship altogether and takes a cue from the synth funk playbook of Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters" and offers a slice of Brand X styled jazz-fusion.

"Il Risveglio Del Serpente" (The Snake Awakens) provides a gentle piano based respite in between the funkiness of "Snip-Snap" and the monstrous shapeshifting band named track that follows. "Goblin" takes almost a minute to wade through the crackling sounds but then explodes into a series of emotive keyboard runs and power chords guitar style before morphing into what reminds me of Gryphon's style of progressive folk (such as on "Red Queen To Gryphon") complete with an instantly catchy melodic hook and stellar instrumental interplay especially between the keys, bass and drums. Remember that guitars are a tertiary event on this album well at least until Morante erupts into one of the most impressive guitar solos on the entire album which takes on a bluesy heavy rock persona a la Jimmy Page, Johnny Winter and other guitar greats of the era. The track drifts from atmospheric passages and other variations and culminates in a massive drum solo and synth funk-fest complete with African drumming.

The album ends with "Dr. Frankenstein" which slowly and placidly accumulates speed. A droning organ in the background offers a canvas for the guitar, bass and drums to slowly ratchet up the tension. When the bass kicks in, the synth funk groove is established but the counterpoints of the second keys and guitar offer glimpses into the scarier side of GOBLIN's personality that seduce the horrific soundtrack sounds to emerge from their cages. The track is essentially two different ones as about four minutes in morphs into an energetic extravaganza that finds the bass on hyperspeed and the keyboards duking it on on steroids Keith Emerson style. The track offers a profound ending to a nicely laid out album. ROLLER is quite the prog rock sensation and which offers a unique mix of GOBLIN's idiosyncratic goods along with styles from other prog rock bands of the era which offers an outstanding display of pyrotechnics in sonic form that doesn't eschew the art of musical foreplay and then delivering a climactic conclusion. In short, ROLLER displays GOBLIN going for the gusto where they can show off their chops out of the confines of the movie theme limitations and in the process rocked the friggin house.

I was pretty pumped after hearing "Roller," the first tune on this album. It's a great composition with an excellent sound and absolutely fantastic bass playing by Fabio Pignatelli. Could they keep it going for another 30 minutes?

Not really. Going into Roller, I understood Goblin to be in the movie-scoring business, so maybe this colored my reception of the album. Most of Roller sounded like backing music when I first heard it, and it still does. In other words, most of the songs don't sound designed to stand on their own, but to support a movie, a TV show, or the like.

The album-closing "Dr. Frankenstein," perhaps as suggested by its title, could work as a theme in a science-fiction movie, although it's not distinctive enough to be the main theme. "The Snake Awakens," a piano-based piece with minimal percussion, could work as background music on a historical drama like the BBC used to make. And "Snip Snap" almost sounds more like a 1970s TV soundtrack than any 1970s TV soundtrack ever did. Nice swirly analog synths on this one, by the way.

"Goblin," an eleven-minute suite, moves from jam-band rockin' to melodic, almost new-agey jazz before evolving into that 1970s soundtrack sound with funky rhythm guitar, busy, clever bass, a drummer supported by a Latin percussionist... you get the idea. After a reasonable drum solo, another theme, faster but no less funky, wraps things up.

So the title track of Roller is where it's at. Sure, it's cinematic, but it also holds up as a standalone song. I'd recommend to any fan of symphonic rock and to anyone who enjoys meaty bass playing. As for the album as a whole, it's very good soundtrack music, and merely good progressive rock.