SYMPHONIC HOLOCAUST

Morte Macabre was a one-off collaboration between members of Anekdoten and Landberk, and it sounds precisely how you'd expect such a project to sound: dark as heck, with heaps of influence from classic 1970s prog bands of the past.

Indeed, the album - aside from the extended jam of a title track - is intended to pay tribute to a particular subset of 1970s prog: those musicians, the most famous of which being Goblin, who turned their hand to producing soundtracks for horror movies (and the occasional porno). Morte Macabre do not steer towards the more obvious picks, though - there's nothing from Goblin's Profondo Rosso or Suspiria, arguably the most famous works in this sub-subgenre of symphonic prog; rather, the band resurrect some of the more obscure works in this vein, ensuring that the tribute brings to light compositions which might otherwise have been forgotten.

Overall, the album is an impressive work of spooky symphonic prog, awash with Mellotron (all four band members get to play with the Mellotron at one point or another!) and equally soaked in atmosphere.