ZOMBI [AKA: DAWN OF THE DEAD] (OST)

I have never seen Dawn Of The Dead, either the original or the recent remake. That film was of course George A. Romero's sequel to Night Of The Living Dead. Goblin got involved due to their association with director Dario Argento, who wanted to help out with Romero's new film. In most countries, this film became known as Zombi. This is a good soundtrack, but I might slightly prefer Profondo Rosso and Suspiria to it.

As usual, these guys are instrumental, and the keyboards and bass generally stand out. "L'alba Dei Morti Viventi" is the theme song I take it. Based around a heartbeat like bass drum and a 4-note bass line. The music is slow moving, almost like...a zombie! Great synths in this song. There is some choir vocals but I'm not sure if they are real or done on keyboards. This song is perfect music for a horror movie. "Zombi" is one of the better songs. It starts out very energenic and fast paced. I like the polyphonic synths used here. Later some Santana- like percussion and droning voices, while the band plays a funky vamp.

"Safari" as would be expected, is a very African sounding song with percussion and vocals. "Torte in Faccia" is the kind of honky-tonk/barrom piano music you would hear in some old black and white movie. Similar to the piano playing in ELP's "Jeremy Bender" and "Benny The Bouncer". I couldn't listen to this kind of music all day, but this song is nice. "Ai Morgini Della Follia" is spacey synth sounds, almost hypnotic at times. "Zaratozom" is New Wave with hard rock guitars.

"La Caccia" is the best song. Starts with some interesting synth and drumming in a start/stop fashion. I like how the music is all dark and dramatic, then leads to sunny mandolins and polyphonic synths. Later settles into a jazz-funk vamp with great synths. "Tirassegno" is a country-rock song(!) A good one too with nice violin. "Oblio" is a laid-back ballad type song based on piano. Cool sax in this song. Sounds like Mellotron about halfway. The bass almost solos at times. "Risveglio" is just a short piano piece.

Soundtracks, by their very nature, are not very consistent. You get music that could stand on it's own mixed with stuff that is obviously supposed to be 'background music'. If you are just starting to get into Goblin, I would suggest getting their non-soundtrack Roller album instead. As far as soundtracks go, I would hear Suspiria before this. Like usual, the sound and playing is top notch. The better songs here are great examples of good prog rock from the late 1970s. I'll give this a 3.5 but round it up to 4 stars.