Seeing as how last year I covered the music of Nox Arcana, it felt natural that I should cover their musical counterparts: Midnight Syndicate. Much like Nox Arcana, they specialize in making atmospheric, dark, neo-classical music that incorporates story elements and dialogue that capture the haunting and dark mindset that perfectly captures the Halloween spirit. Since I covered some of my favorite works of Nox Arcana last year, I decided to dive into this group’s work and decide to share some of my personal favorites from them.
Vampyre
Much like many pieces of Horror fiction, one idea that will always make its return is vampires. It is a frequently touched upon topic throughout the years that serves that holds up as one of the more popular sub-genres and this was the band’s entry into that world. While not diving into any specific piece of vampire lore, they invoke the emotions and atmosphere of the world that the likes of Bram Stoker and John William Polidori have created many years ago that also inspires the listener to create their own tale from the music (as most of their works do).
The 13th Hour
Much like the above mentioned Vampires, another frequently used topic for Horror is the Haunted House. It’s a frequently used one but it can still be a lot of fun when used and this was a perfect example. The album some inspiration from the classic haunted house tales of old as well as being based on paranormal experience to create their own interpretation of a haunted house. It’s a perfect way to capture the mindset on could have when dealing with the creepy and off-putting atmosphere that the houses can create and is one that I listen to frequently.
Monsters of Legend
If you’re into Horror in any possible way, there’s no denying that you would love (or at least seen) the Universal Monster classics. Their impact on Horror is monumental that still influences people to this day and is an obvious essential for anyone who would want to get into the genre. Given the impact they’ve had, it’s no surprise that the band made an album that’s a tribute to the classics of both Universal and their Hammer counterparts. This album easily gets you in the mind set of being in the setting of those stories or feel like being a character directly in them.
Speaking of Universal, this next one is an obvious choice.
Music of Halloween Horror Nights
All throughout the history of Universal Orlando, the park’s annual Halloween event has frequently used music in their websites showcasing the upcoming previews, scarezones & mazes as well as being used for inspiration as they come up with new ideas for the event. Not only have they used pieces that were previously made from their catalog, but the band has also created their own original pieces specifically for the attractions. This saw a mixture of both traditional instrumental music and pieces set to narration to help establish the lore of some of the previous years of the event (especially with the lore heavy Tales of Terror which is easily their best year). It was quite a surprise to see both sides make this album a reality and was definitely cherished by fans of both entities.
Christmas: A Ghostly Gathering
Much like many holiday horror films of the past, Midnight Syndicate decided to take the usual holly jolly holiday of Christmas and add their own dark twist to it. While there are plenty of traditional Christmas songs found on here, they threw in some original compositions that help add in a creepy factor that make it stand out from what some may expect to be a Nightmare Before Christmas knock-off.
The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates
After some years of not releasing any albums that weren’t made specifically for a film, the duo decided to create an album that was inspired by a film instead. Given that the film was ripe with material that served as perfect inspiration for the duo, they set out immediately to make new album from it. The film had the ideas and concepts of vampires, occultism, zombies, ancient Egyptian artifacts and many other things that are right up any horror fans alley that are perfect to spark up inspiration for the horror genre (It kind of makes me want to take a look at it as well).
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