SUSPIRIA (OST)

I think most people who listen to progressive rock are familiar with the Italian band GOBLIN. If you're not, the band started off in the early 70s as the band CHERRY FIVE (reviewed above). They changed their band name, started work on another progressive rock album, but suddenly changed careers after receiving a call from a movie director to write the soundtrack to a horror movie entitled "Profundo Rosso". That movie turned out to become a hit in Italy, and the soundtrack a best-seller. "Suspiria" is a soundtrack to another Italian horror movie, but it's also considered GOBLIN's scariest and most experimental work to date. Well, as far as "scary" goes by today's standards (X-files influenced soundtracks) the music is typical of the mid-70s. Yet, the music never falls into the "cheesy" HALLOWEN music category. The tracks tend to mix dissonant notes, evil whispering voices, percussion crashes, and even a few funky sections. The tracks are also quite detailed (which is suprising today, since modern soundtrack music isn't supposed to stand out, and work well even without the visuals. Overall, "Suspiria" is a stronger album than "Roller". Word has it, this might be the strongest GOBLIN soundtrack out there.

Music has been a powerful element on Dario Argento's classic films, and both the film and soundtrack of "Suspiria" certainly stand as greatest highlight both to director and the group Goblin. The band conjures quite abstract and very oppressing walls of with raw elements. The main theme wallows on hysteria of animistic chants, sighs and percussions. I find it difficult to listen this music escaping the visuals from the film, and thus the LP has not grown as an album to be listened very often, though it is very prolific. I think the original movie poster as a record cover (which is presented here) is tastier than the covers of a vinyl which I found, displaying a close-up photo of slashing sequence from the film.

I don't really know the history and the whole discography of the band but this album has a kind of magnetic, seductive atmosphere, probably due to the fact that it is the soundtrack of the horror/ thriller movie directed by the famous Dario Argento. To make this adventure looking scary the music contains efficient sinister Moog synth repetitive sequences (the opening track) but rapidly we go back to quick jazzy rock tunes mixed with symphonic keyboards materials. The technical, emotional and great variety of guitar parts is really enjoyable. Guitar harmonies and synth sounds pleasantly and regularly fall into dramatic, funny, sometimes lyrical musical passages. Not very terrific or gloomy the general mood is turned to light jazz rock compositions in the genre developed and structured by the revolutionary British prog scene.

This Italian progressive music is rather strange and well suited for the excellent Dario Argento's horror movies. NO progressive band sound like them! It is absolutely unique! The first side is not really progressive: it is very nervous, dynamic and scary, but I do not find it dark: that's why it is well suited for this kind of movie, in which beautiful young girls are brutally killed. There are tons of percussions (small bells among others), exotic acoustic instruments, probably mandolin, crazy & scary screams, drums, and some stunning repetitive keyboards.

The second side is really more progressive and the songs are more structured, even sometimes sounding fusion, a bit like Brand X. The keyboards, the drums and the guitars are really omnipresent here. It amazingly ends with a simple catchy piano ballad!!

The album length is short, but it is very intense.

Rating: 3.5 stars

GOBLIN, three of whose members played in CHERRY FIVE, was/is a skilled group of musicians who produced slick, well-crafted scores. This one is the official soundtrack to Dario Argento's 1977 classic horror flick Suspiria, and is essentially an instrumental album if one discounts the vocalisations, spooky whispering and speaking here and there. The album is a synthesizer fan's feast, but the synths are so integral to the pieces -- and used to produce such a mixture of sounds -- that to me this does not feel at all like a keyboard-laden album.

The title track starts off spookily, with celesta and bells playing a 13-note theme that carries on through the track and ingrains itself in your brain. The track just screams (figuratively, that is!) "horror movie soundtrack" at you. Creepy, whispered la-la-la-ing and evil-sounding speaking leave you in no doubt about that. There is some excellent use of synthesizer here. The piece rocks up half way through and even turns funky.

'Witch' starts with what sounds like ritualistic tribal drumming, howling vocalisations and a deep, reverberating "Doh!" that hits you in the solar plexus. That specific sound reminds me of PATRICK MORAZ's "Story of i", and I am left wondering whether MORAZ was inspired by this piece. The track contains experimental use of synthesizers and distorted drums, all sounding spooky.

'Opening To The Sighs' is a very brief piece of drumming building to a crescendo, and sounds more like the end of 'Witch' than the opening to the next track, 'Sighs', which starts with such evil-sounding sighs that they literally make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I listen to this on headphones. The track is full of wailing and that deep, resonant "Doh!" again, this time sounding like the chant of Tibetan monks. Twanging acoustic guitar and bouzouki almost sound Tibetan too, the way they are played. Other sounds are mixed into the background: growling, braying, hissing, wailing and the odd spoken word such as "witchcraft". Sounds more like the entrance to Hell.

'Markos', on the other hand, starts off with very fat synthesizer waddling around over repetitive, high-pitched staccato synthesizer, bells and drums. There's a lot going on in this track. Again this is rather an experimental sound and, to me, almost feels like one of VANGELIS' more repetitive electronic pieces. It also has a slightly oriental (Chinese) sound to it. An interesting use of synthesizers, and very pleasing to a synthesizer fan or a fan of psychedelic electronica in general, I would imagine.

'Black Forest' is more musical, using synthesizer and, later, some laid-back, jazzy sax. Like most of the other tracks it has a repetitive theme running through it, but is more musical and melodic than the three previous tracks. To accompany the jazzy sax there is even some grooving guitar slightly reminiscent of PINK FLOYD and some funky, pumping bass. This is my favourite track on the album, and is the most Progressive Rock-sounding track on it in my opinion. A very good piece, actually.

'Blind Concert' starts with what sound like chimes and xylophone, but then in comes an extremely funky bass and drum beat, and keyboards and guitar dart around them. As on the other tracks, synthesizers waddle and chirp away in the background. This track gets your head nodding and, although still slightly spooky in feel, is a very groovy jazz-funk number.

'Death Valzer' is a very ordinary traditional waltz, plonked away on a piano. One-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three. More the sort of thing you'd expect at a tea dance. But then you'll need to watch Suspiria to find out how it fits in.

The CD has some 'bonus' tracks, although they don't add much that is worthwhile to the album in my opinion: 'Suspiria (Celesta and Bells)' is a rehash of the first track but with, you guessed it, just celesta and bells repeating that spooky 13-note riff over and over. Think "music box"; think "room with moonlight flooding in at the window"; think "creepy". Gorgeous sound, though. Then comes 'Suspiria (Narration)', which consists of a whispering voice saying, in accented English, things like "There are three witches in the school", over the top of that 13-note celesta and bells riff. 'Suspiria (Intro)' is just a brief, normal-sounding musical intro including trumpets (synthesizer?): nothing of import. Lastly, there is an alternative version of the fifth track 'Markos'; it still reminds me of VANGELIS in his more experimental phase and I enjoy the synthesizer loop accompanied by bells, drums and a fat, waddling synthesizer.

In summary: yes, this album does sound like a soundtrack, but it also sounds experimental and quite exciting. In fact, to me it sounds more exciting and interesting -- albeit less conventionally musical -- than "Roller", the other GOBLIN album I know to date (see my earlier review). It's by no means essential, but I think there is plenty in it to interest, and perhaps scare the bejesus out of, fans of Progressive Rock. Thus I have no hesitation in awarding it 4 stars (Excellent addition to any progressive music collection). Best listened to on headphones at night. alone.

Addtional notes on re-release This is a re-release of the 1977 GOBLIN album "Suspiria", the official soundtrack to the horror flick of the same name, but with four bonus tracks (tracks 9 to 12) which are mostly variations on the existing tracks.

Either the original or this 1997 re-release are worth checking out, as this is a very evocative and spooky soundtrack to a classic art house movie written and directed by Dario Argento. The storyline is that a young American woman travels to a German ballet academy to perfect her dancing. However all is not as it seems: the staff is a coven of witches, and the gruesome killings begin.

Suspiria!!

This is the 4th (i believe) album from this wonderful Italian band that i am reviewing, and now that i had a look to the other reviews, i am shocked that any collaborator has reviewed this since 2006, shame on me, and on some of you. But fortunately i may guide others to give a spin to this and maybe a review in the future.

As some of you know, Goblin is a symphonic band that through the years has composed music not only for the progressive rock listener, but for the horror movie watcher, they did several soundtracks for Argento's movies, Profondo Rosso may be the best example, and Suspiria was another album that runs incredibly good with the visual scenes of the movie with the same name.

A band with music for horror movies? You may think that the music here is dark and obscure and you may ask yourself why is this a band considered a Symphonic one, well when you listen to it you will realize that most of the music goes with the leadership of keyboard player Claudio Simonetti and that produce a predominate symphonic sound after all.

This album has 8 and a total time of 34 minutes, it is a short album but truly enjoyable, there are some extra tracks in the re-released CD.

Suspiria kicks off with the title-track, with a scary celesta and bell sound and some whispers over there, the atmosphere created will immediately make you feel in a horror movie, the song is progressing and as i told you before, the keyboards play the main role and after almost 3 minutes the song changes with a faster time and gives the idea of a pursuit, the music is totally progressive rock so if you are skeptik and believe that symph prog rock cannot fit with an horror movie, listen to this, after a couple of minutes more, it retursn as it began, a great song.

Witch opens with some kind of percussion and screams, that actually remind me a lot to the 3rd or 4th song from Tangerine Dream's Atem (don't remember the name now). The song is very creepy and totally accurate for a horror scene, listen to it with nice headphones, and you may feel like if you were inside the movie.

Opening to the Sighs is just a short prelude the next song that as you can guess is called Sighs, and sighs is another great and scary piece that has a lot of hidden sounds, some screams and kind of chants in the background, led by some acoustic guitars and creating a weird atmosphere, like in a moment of transicion or desesperation, strange the feeling, great the music which actually remains being the same during the first 4 minutes, and at the end the guitars dissapear and just the strange noises continue.

The following song is entitled Markos and starts with a sound that again reminds me to Tangerine Dream due to the synths sound, so besides the symphonic structure of the album, it also has electronic elements along with some others world music sounds. This song has short but great percussion work on it since what predominates are the synths, a VERY hypnotizing song!

With the next song, Black Forest we are starting to reach the last part of the album, it opens with a melodic acoustic guitar sound with some synth background and a new element, the saxophone which is played after 1.30 minute and that gives the song a delicate jazzy touch. An excellent composition that after a couple of minutes shows a rockier side of the band with a guitar solo, constant drumming and great bass lines, later you will hear ssome keayboard notes and a solo, and again the sax on it, one of the finest compositions from this album.

Blind Concert shows another face of the band, they maintain the creepy sound due to the bells and synths backs, but this time it has a very funky bass that will make you enjoy the song a lot, the structure of the song reminds me for some reason to a Focus tune, just the structure, not necessarily the sound. Blind concert makes me think of a movie scene where some character is preparing his way for going out and achieve something, maybe a murder i don't know, the rythm is very funky and moody, cool song.

The album finishes with a shorter track called Death Waltz which actually as the name says is a waltz, so you know you will only listen to the piano sound and you will imagine yourself dancing, this is how this great album ends.

Not my favourite Goblin album, but how i love it, it is a great record that i enjoy listening a lot and i am sure the most of you will enjoy as well. If you can, watch the movie and fall in love with Goblin's music which is an awesome band in my point of view. If you buy the re-release of this album you will find some extra tracks which are Suspiria with narration, Suspiria just with bells and celesta, and a different version of Markos. My grade, 4 stars! Excellent addition to any prog music collection.

Enjoy it!

As much praise that Goblin's first soundtrack "Profondo Rosso" preferentially gets from prog collectors everywhere (and quite rightly so), I must admit that my favorite Goblin OST is the one they wrote and recorded for the "Suspiria" movie. There has always been a special magic that connected Goblin's musical creativity and Dario Argento's twisted refurbishment of cinematographic horror, it was so intense that it made Goblin a big name in the Italian progressive rock scene even if the framework of a movie's soundtrack was restrictive enough as notto give room to symphonic epics or systematic displays of refined virtuosity. Epic sounds and virtuosic playing are two things that one does not precisely miss in a god Goblin album, but the fact is that the room for sonicexpression was always constrained by the narrative demands of a particular movie. But as I said a few lines above, there was a magic in the marriage of Goblin's music and Argento's cinematic vision that allowed these soundtrack albums to become relevant prog rock items in themselves. In the case of "Suspiria", the namesake opener is an iconic sample of Goblin's masterful handling of cacophonic tension and powerful horrific textures. This piece is just irressistible (the Smashing Pumpkins used this piece as an intro theme for many concerts, so they will agree with me on this, for sure), with the delicate sounds of celesta and glockenspiel portraying an uneasy aura that gradually grows into restless darkness as the instrumentation augments (including bouzouki and exotic perucssive beats). The greyish rocking interlude states a moment of majesty among the overall horror. The final result sounds like a mixture of early Oldfield and 75-77 Tangerine Dream. The next 3 pieces elaborate a crucial enhancement of the horror, with the basis musical ideas leaning more on abstract colors - 'Witch' develops an orgy of demented screams and sadistic percussions, while the pairing of 'Opening To The Sighs' and 'Sighs' states an ethereal twist to the ongoing terror. The album's second half starts with 'Markos', whose main body is focused on a pulsating intensity rigorously engaged with a robus architecture of synths and percussions. This almost cacophonic (black) magic serves efficiently as a sonic image of urgency and despair. On the other side of things, 'Black Forest' first brings an air of nebulous mystery within a mostly calm framework. At a certain point, the piece shifts toward an agile exercise on jazz-rock with clever fusion-oriented undertones. Morante brings in some amazing guitar soloing, dynamically interacting with other leads brought in by Simonetti on synth and guest Antonio Marangolo on sax. 'Blind Concert' is the most vital track in the album, a jazz-funky composition that allows the band to move into Baricentro and Perigeo territories: to my ears, it doesn't sound out of place, but it works as a well- csontructed space for release from the dominant darkness (after all, this is a horror movie's OST, isn't it?). 'Death Valzer' is also a joyful piece, with a featured piano delivering a Cabaret-like waltz: most certainly, this is related to the irony and sick humor that play a big part in Argento's movies. The CD edition includes some bonus tracks, which are mostly curiosities. All in all, "Suspiria" is an excellent item in any prog rock collection.

Most people got introduced to Goblin's music by either watching Profondo Rosso (Deep Red) or Suspiria and I'm a proud member of the latter category. If you haven't seen them then I definitely suggest to do so since they are two of the most stylish and elaborate horror/mystery movies of the '70s. But now I digress...

After hearing the main title theme for Suspiria I fell in love with the mysterious and somewhat Gothic-like atmosphere that was embedded in the music so purchasing this album as my introduction to Goblin was an obvious choice. I remember that the first time I played the album on my CD-player I turned the volume way up high which made the high pitch sounds really unbearable. After adjusting the volume I could finally fully appreciate the opening composition in all its glory. I'm saying this because the main title theme is mainly know for the intro section and not many have ever bothered to discover the wonderful composition that follows. The same goes for Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells which most people recognize from the opening sounds of the movie The Exorcist.

I'm not really a fan of the next couple of numbers because they are mainly atmospheric pieces that work well in the context of the movie but fall relatively flat while experienced on their own. Luckily Markos is a nice piece that basically picks up where the main title theme left off but this time the synthesizer sound slowly pan from one side to another as if to indicate the present danger in the context of the movie. Black Forest is definitely the most progressive piece of music off this album which even features some nice saxophone sections. Unfortunately I often get tired of the slow build-up that this composition tries to establish before getting to the two minutes of pure bliss, so it's never been one of my favorites. Blind Concert on the other hand manages to do everything I lacked on the previous track and even beyond! It's also probably the only of these tracks that would have worked well outside the soundtrack setting.

It's a real surprise for me to find out that I actually don't like this album as much as I originally assumed. Suspiria is a great soundtrack that I can't recommend to everyone because of some compositions that can only be enjoyed once you've seen the movie. I think that good, but non-essential rating is definitely in order here!

***** star songs: Suspiria (5:57)

**** star songs: Markos (4:03) Blind Concert (6:11) Death Valzer (1:51)

*** star songs: Witch (3:10) Opening To The Sighs (0:32) Sighs (5:15) Black Forest (6:06)

Suspiria is a soundtrack album release by Italian progressive rock act Goblin. It´s the soundtrack to the motion picture of the same name by Italian director Dario Argento. Suspiria is a supernatural horror movie about a witch coven trying to unleash evil forces upon the earth. The movie is widely regarded as a classic in the horror movie genre. Goblin had in 1975 provided songs to the soundtrack for the Profondo Rosso ( Deep Red) movie by Dario Argento and he chose to collaborate with the group again on Suspiria.

The music on the album is a mix of symphonic prog, funky Jazz rock/ fusion and soundtrack oriented sound pieces. Goblin have a kitchy approach to making music that I usually find greatly enjoyable and parts of Suspiria are no exception. They can make some really scary sounding pieces but when they wip up a funky jazz/ rock groove I´m kind of reminded of music in porn flicks from the seventies. A song like Blind Concert is a brilliant example of the latter style. The Black Forest track is a bit more serious jazz/ rock fusion IMO, and it also happens to be my favorite on Suspiria. The opening title track of course shouldn´t be forgotten either because it´s definitely in the scary department. I really enjoy that song. Especially the middle part where there are some nice synth playing. Unfortunately I find too many of the songs to be too soundtrack oriented and while those songs probably work fine within the movie I don´t find them that interesting without the pictures. Too much evil chanting and tribal drumming for my taste. If it actually sounded evil and not like something from a B horror movie I might be more impressed ( well Suspiria is kind of a B horror movie...but then again). I guess the kitch just goes too far for me there.

The production is excellent as on any of the early albums by Goblin.

After listening to the earlier releases by Goblin, Suspiria actually comes out as quite a disappointment to me. It´s not a bad album by any means but there are not enough really impressive songs to earn it a 4 star rating IMO. 3.5 stars will do.

The stylish, blood-drenched horror films of director Dario Argento would provide the perfect platform for Italian symphonic-proggers Goblin, none more so than the seminal, and surreal, 1976 horror-fantasy 'Suspiria'. Hailed as one of Argento's finest and as one of the greatest horror films of the 20th century, 'Suspiria' features American actress Jessica Harper as a ballet student sent to study at a gothic girls school in rural Switzerland, a school which may be haunted by a coven of evil witches. The combination of Argento's bravura direction, the strange, multi-coloured set design, a series of cleverly-constructed suspense set-pieces and Goblin's creepy soundtrack made for a truly terrifying experience, and the success of both the film and the soundtrack would prove a career high-point for both director and group. The trick Goblin managed to pull-off was creating an album's worth of music that could both enhance the film's impact but also be an album in it's own right; indeed, the 'Suspiria' soundtrack, along with Argento's stylish visuals, are one the film's most indelible, and important, elements, brewing up a genuine atmosphere of dread that permeates each scene. The music combines richly with Argento's prowling camera, but the impact is not lost when the music is taken out of context and listened to by itself. The opening title track, with it's piercing synths, hypnotic bass groove and lightly-strummed acoustic guitars is one of the great modern horror themes, but more than that it is also a damn fine prog-rock workout, showcasing Goblin's keen ear for building tension and their tendency to underpin their dread-filled symphonies with a smattering of funk-tinged electronica. It is without a doubt the stand-out track on the album, as well as being the group's musical calling card, but the rest of 'Suspiria' is also well worth exploring. Imagine Yes sacked Rick Wakeman, replaced him with Dracula and started recording an album for the devil and you kind of get the Goblin dynamic; stylish, atmospheric, funky and highly-symphonic, 'Suspiria' is remarkable piece of music, both as a soundtrack and as a stand-alone album. Those familiar with the soundtracks of both Tangerine Dream and US director John Carpenter, as well as the contemporary, analogue synth-driven electronica of French duo Zombie Zombie, will be in for a real, blood-drenched treat. Horror never sounded so good. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

This is one of many Horror-Movie soundtracks that GOBLIN did over the years.This is considered by many (including the band) to be their best. My overall thoughts on it are very similar to UMUR's. Disappointment is the word. Considering that I own a lot of albums that are in this dark, haunting style I was expecting much more than I got. I'll just stick with the original tracks because the bonus tracks did little for me.There's mellotron on three tracks. By the way i'm not a fan at all of Horror movies so the pictures inside of a woman with needles in her eyes or the one hanging, covered in blood is a complete turn off. Just saying. And I realize this has nothing to do with the music i'm reviewing.

"Suspira" opens with keyboards as these sinister whispered words join in then a beat. A change 2 1/2 minutes in as we get an uptempo melody. Another change before 4 1/2 minutes as the original soundscape returns to end it. "Witch" opens with the wind blowing as loud percussion sounds and eerie vocal expressions join in. "Opening The Sighs" is a short piece that builds in intensity until it ends suddenly.

"Sighs" features haunting voices then the music joins in before a minute. "Markos" is a cool song with lots of electronics that builds. "Black Forest / Blind Concert" opens with acoustic guitar as keys, synths then drums before 2 minutes join in. It sounds like sax too.The guitar comes in ripping it up before 3 1/2 minutes. It settles right down 6 1/2 minutes in. A beat arrives after 7 minutes. I like the drumming here. Keys to the fore 10 minutes in, guitar too. Great track ! "Death Valzer" features piano throughout.

"Roller" is my favourite GOBLIN album, their soundtrack recordings just don't do a lot for me. "Heresi" and "Les Morts Vont Vite" and many others are much more inventive and haunting.

The problem with movie soundtrack albums is that usually they are primarily written to create a mood for various parts of the film in question and while they may do a perfect job as their original intention don't always make for a particularly enjoyable listening experience in their own right. Such is often the case with Goblin's work for the Dario Argento movie Suspiria. Goblin, with a few exceptions, have pretty much made a career doing movie soundtracks and have created many excellent pieces of music. Like here on Suspiria though you sometimes have to sift through to find the good from the.....well I won't say bad as that's not the case, let's just say functionary for its intended purpose.

Suspiria from a purely listening points of view has three great pieces of music; the title track, Black Forest and Blind Concert. It's here where Goblin mainly functions as a full band fusing elements of prog with jazz and funk and creating some exciting musical tension. Most of the rest are in the main mood pieces and out of their context lack any real spark and in the case of Witch even annoying with its banshee style wailing. Like I said before, no doubt serving its purpose for the movie well, but not as a piece in its own right. Thus I'll always enjoy Goblin albums more such as Roller or Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark more than their soundtracks. Some excellent moments then but overall lacking greatness as a cohesive whole.

I really love this album, and I do believe this to be the quintessential Argento film soundtrack. Also, if you haven't seen the film then you definitely should.

This album is perfectly, ominously supernatural sounding. Starting off the the title track, you get chimes, pulsing tribal-sounding percussion, and a deeply ominous sounding but engaging melody played on another set of chimes or maybe a glockenspiel (whatever it is, it sounds like your nightmares).

"Witch" is a highly tribal sounding track, complete with wailing banshee vocals, which makes this track unsettling in a way that makes it just kind of annoying to listen to by itself but goes great with the soundtrack, and for that I will respect it.

"Sighs" and it's opening track continue with the tribal sounding soundtrack tunes, but I actually like this one better. It's got a nice twang to it, if you know what I mean, and it kind of reminds me of Australia for some odd reason. It's a creepy set of tracks but I personally find them enjoyable for no clear reason.

"Markos" is a more "music" oriented track even though it's background is just a minimalist synth motif, but the bass and the percussion battle back and forth and intertwine and it's a real mess, but it is fantastic.

"Black Forest" is darkly jazzy and funky, and lets up on the creepiness a little. I could compare it to the British band IF, if they were goth-inspired. This is one of the more progressive songs on this album and is a definite standout, especially considering that this is a soundtrack.

"Blind concert" starts off with the title track motif, but then starts to get funky. Those witches that wan't to kill you apparently just want to get down on that funk. And the funk doesn't let up at all throughout this track's duration. One of my favorite components of Goblin has always been the bassist, and here you can definitely see why.

"Death Valzer" is probably my absolute favorite composition by Goblin. It's a beautiful acoustic piano waltz that almost sounds ragtime-y. I like to play this and act like I'm in a silent movie. I don't really know what to say about this track other than you should hear it and decide for yourself, but I think it is amazing in every way.

I have the disc with the bonus tracks that came with the limited edition super whatever packaging of the Suspiria film, but the other tracks are different versions of other songs on this album and I personally don't love or hate them. They just kind of... exist.

This is a great album by a great band that serves as the soundtrack for a great movie. Hear it, watch it, and enjoy.

Goblin enter 1977 with the responsibility to produce the music for another Dario Argento horror film.But this time the band suffers a severe loss,as original keyboardist Maurizio Guarini left the band,leaving Claudio Simonetti alone in this place.The new ''Suspria'' album sees the light the same year on Cinevox.

Listening to the eponymous opener I prepared myself for another unique Goblin experience.Simonetti delivers some really haunting,virtuosic and dreamy performance on this excellent number.Unfortunately things wont go the same way for the rest of the album,which seems written only to fullfill the needs of the film.The next fifteen minutes or four tracks if you like are closer to free Avant Garde/Electronic Music with wordless obscure vocals,sudden keyboard appearances,trippy effects and acoustic guitars.Abstract musicianship and not my favorite style I have to admit.With ''Black forest'' seems get into shape again,a laid-back soft prog rock number with a jazzy edge, some sax melodies around and Simonetti offering his usual adventurous playing. ''Blind concert'' is a different story,a track full of groovy bits by bass and drums with jazzy guitar solos and background piano and keys.''Death valzer'' is a short and meaningless waltz adaption,clearly created for the scope of the movie.

I am afraid this is the most daring but also the less conveincing and inspired Goblin release so far.And maybe this album could be a good one for an unknown band,but for Goblin the standards for me are much higher.Only for the dedicated fans of the band...2.5 stars.

Goblin's scariest album - which makes this one of the most horrifying album in prog rock - Suspiria mixes more traditional Goblin tracks with terrifying, almost Zeuhlish elements which at points resemble Univers Zero's experiments on Heresie. Pulsing synthesisers lash out, accusatory whispers and tortured screams echo forth, and songs shift from brooding mood pieces into energetic symphonic prog attacks. The best track is probably the opening track, in which demonic voices sing along to gentle, almost carefree backing before at the three minute mark the synthesisers and full band kick in and things go completely nuts. At times hinting at the chamber rock of the likes of Art Zoyd, at other points recapturing the spirit of Profondo Rosso or Roller, Suspiria is quintessential Goblin through and through.

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.