Today’s music video of the day is from Thom Yorke’s soundtrack for the upcoming Suspiria remake or rehash or reboot or whatever the Hell it’s supposed to be.
I may not be particularly happy about the idea of a new version of Suspiria (especially one that apparently doesn’t involve a single Argento) but I do like what I’ve heard of the soundtrack. Of course, nothing can improve on Claudio Simonetti’s work on the original but still….
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day comes from Agnes Obel.
It’s an absolutely beautiful song and the video is wonderfully atmospheric. It’s not necessarily a horror video but the eerie feel of it all makes it perfect for October.
Enjoy!
Goblin Rebirth is one of the many different incarnations of the classic Italian prog rock band, Goblin. Goblin Rebirth is made up of:
Fabio Pignatelli – bass
Agostino Marangolo – drums
Aidan Zammit – keyboards
Giacomo Anselmi – guitars
Danilo Cherni – keyboards
Anyway, here they are performing Buio Omega in concert. Buio Omega is the main theme of one of my favorite Italian horror films, Beyond the Darkness. Even if you haven’t seen the film — and, when it comes to movies about wealthy young men who dig up their dead girlfriends and eat hitchhikers, it doesn’t get much better than Beyond the Darkness — the music is wonderfully atmospheric. You just hear this music and you know that something really odd is about to happen.
Diverti!
From Dario Argento’s massively underrated vampire film, Dracula 3D.
Diverti!
This video is for a song that Claudio Simonetti composed for Dario Argento’s 1985 film, Opera.
Compared to the film, the video is decidedly low-key but it’s still a lovely piece of music.
Diverti!
Today’s music video of the day is Demon by Claudio Simonetti.
This was composed for the soundtrack of Lamberto Bava’s classic film, Demons. The video is basically mix of scenes from Demons and Simonetti performing. It’s pretty simple but I still like it, mostly because Demons is one of my favorite Italian horror films. Interestingly enough, this video was directed by Michele Soavi, who played the man in the mask in Demons and who went on to direct such horror classics as Stagefright, The Church, and Dellamorte Dellamore.
Diverti!
Both on his own and as a member of Goblin. Claudio Simonetti has been responsible for some of the most iconic scores in the history of Italian horror cinema. He is probably best known for Goblin’s score for Dario Argento’s Suspiria. The minute you hear the opening of that score, you are immediately transported into Argento’s nightmarish world of witches, death, and ballet.
In 1999, Simonetti formed Daemonia, a heavy mental band that played updated version of his classic horror scores, along with new material. In this video, they perform Suspiria and the end result is a perfect video for October!
Divertiti!
The lesson of this video is don’t try to bury Messiah Marcolin.
Marcolin was the lead singer of the Swedish doom metal band, Candlemass. In this video, for their song Bewitched, Messiah Marcolin not only comes back to life and rises from his own coffin but he uses his powers of awesome singing to create an army of brainwashed zombies. This would be scary, except for the fact that Messiah Marcolin spends most of the video looking like this:
And this.
He does somehow manage to entrance a cute girl about halfway through the video.
I guess that’s the power of Swedish doom metal.
This video, which has been called one of the most enjoyably bad metal video of all time, is significant for being the first video to have been directed by Jonas Akerlund. From working with Candlemass, Akerlund has gone on to direct videos for everyone from U2 to Jane’s Addiction to Beyonce to The Rolling Stones to almost everyone else who has ever had a ht song.
As for Candlemass, they’ve disbanded and gotten back together a few times. In January 2013, Candlemass was voted the greatest Swedish hard rock/metal band of all time by the writers of Sweden Rock Magazine.
One of the seminal songs of the 1980s, The Killing Moon‘s biggest fan might just be the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch. In an interview with Uncut magazine, McCulloch said, “You don’t need to read The Bible, you can listen to ‘The Killing Moon‘ and get as much out of it. It’s the greatest song ever written.”
I would not go as far as to compare it to the Bible but this is a song and a video that epitomizes an era. The atmospheric video, which mixes snow, abandoned roomed, mysterious figures, and flickering lights, is a riddle wrapped in an enigma and seems to be meant to viewed in October.
Years after it was released, The Killing Moon was discovered by a new generation of listeners when Richard Kelly used it in the opening scene of Donnie Darko. As guitarist Will Sergeant explained it to The Guardian, “Years after it was a hit, we got an email saying this bloke wanted to use the song in a film, Donnie Darko, which we didn’t think would go anywhere, so accepted a one-off £3,000. Then when the director did the director’s cut he replaced ‘The Killing Moon’ with ‘Never Tear Us Apart‘ by INXS. Aren’t some people knobheads?”
Do you remember what people used to think KISS stood for?
Knights in Satan’s Service. Preachers and community leaders were told and actually believed that the band was trying to put teenagers under the thrall of Satan.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Paul Stanley came up with KISS and it was never meant to be anything other than a cool name. As Peter Criss explained it, “”It really means a lot. It’s the first thing you do to a chick or anybody. It could also be the kiss of death. It’s a strong word. It’s easy to remember.”
Still, the members of KISS didn’t hesitate to play up their dangerous image. Gene Simmons may have been a self-described “nice Jewish boy from Long Island,” but when he was on stage, he became the blood-drinking Demon. (When Marvel published a KISS comic book in 1977, the red ink was said to contain drops of the band’s blood.)
What’s funny to me about old school KISS is that they would come out on stage, made-up to look like hardcore demons and monsters. Fires would burn as they performed. Blood would pour out of Gene Simmons’s mouth. KISS went out of their way to look evil but their music was so radio friendly that it could probably be played at a church retreat. The idea that anyone believed that they were “knights in Satan’s service” seems ludicrous today.
Rock and Roll All Nite was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Their goal in writing the song was to come up with an anthem for their fans and no one can deny that they succeeded. This video was a promo video that was released, along with the song, in 1975. Like most music videos that were produced in the pre-MTV days, the video keeps things simple and focuses on KISS performing in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
Decades later, a second video would be released for Rock and Roll All Nite. However, that video features KISS without their makeup and that just feels wrong.
Through the Shattered Lens 