SUSPIRIA (OST)

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.