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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Songs Of Terror: A Tribute To
Edgar Allan Poe (Cleopatra)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Oh, it's definitely gonna make your skin crawl so often that it'll end up back where it started, but sometimes this feels more like a stormy seance calling out to the troubled soul of Mr. Poe than a tribute to his work. Personally, that works fine for me. If you just want recognizable icons to hang your hat on, you'll have to wait for Desmo Donte to offer up "Nevermore" at track 3. The Pit and the Pendulum gets transformed by Imortalis Amor in "Closer To My Death (And Other Words Of Love)", though I guess it's been too long since I've read that story because, frankly, I can't figure out what it has to do with it. I just know it makes me want to hear a lot more of Imortalis Amor and I'm frustrated when a Google search brings up almost nothing on the band. Stone 588 tackles "Momento Mori," based on Masque Of The Red Death, Poe's tale that was a thinly veiled account of the horrors of watching his wife die from Tuberculosis. The darkness and sheer emptiness of the ending is related perfectly. Again, this doesn't quote so much as conjure and relate, projecting emotions of the past. Nowhere is the seance aspect more evident than on Trance To The Sun's "Virginia's Lament." This is a brilliant stroke of gothic artistry that conjures the spirits of both Edgar and Virginia (his aforementioned wife) and what sounds like a few dozen unnamed spirits besides. (Trance To The Sun is another band that knocked me out so much that it sent me Google searching, by the way, and I ended up at MP3.com, where I found out they have a ton of songs available for free. Check them out!) Whether it's expected Poe classics or rarities you've never known about, whether it's direct references or just inspiration taken from the master of the macabre, you'll find some of it on this unusual goth collection. Absolutely mandatory for Halloween people. You know who you are.
Track List:
Midnight Configuration - Decline & Fall (The Fall Of The House Of Usher) * Kommunity FK - Undulate (The Devil In The Belfry) * Desmo Donte - Nevermore (The Raven) * Wreckage - Come The Night (Ligeia) * Imortalis Amor - Closer To My Death (And Other Words Of Love) (The Pit & The Pendulum) * Stone 588 - Momento Mori (The Masque Of The Red Death) * Faith And The Muse - Through The Pale Door (The Haunted Palace) * Trance To The Sun - Virginia's Lament (Music) * Stun Gun - Silence In My Solitude (Dream Land) * Jennifer Hope - Dream Within A Dream (A Dream Within A Dream) * Fear Cult - Evil Eye (The Tell-Tale Heart) * Cruciform - Alone (Alone) * Cinema Strange - Legs and Tarpaulin (King Pest) * Ex Voto - The Assignation (The Assignation)
© 2001 - DJ Johnson