GOBLIN REBIRTH

What an interesting time it is to be a Goblin fan! 2015 currently has no less than four Goblin-related projects active - Claudio Simonetti's Goblin which utilizes his Daemonia team-mates, a reactivated Cherry Five (the pre-Goblin band), a reworked version of the original Goblin, and here we have Goblin Rebirth. Two players from various Goblin albums from the vintage Seventies period of the band, Fabio Pignatelli (bass) and Agostino Marangolo (drums), are joined by guitarist Giacomo Anselmi and keyboard players Aidan Zammit and Danilo Cherni, and this all new band carries on in the fine tradition of Goblin past and present...but wait, there's more! Despite not being a soundtrack work like so many previous Goblin works, `Goblin Rebirth' contains all the usual gothic atmospheres, cinematic sophistication and dark prog-rock flavours, but there's plenty of refreshingly interesting new ideas that gives this Goblin its own exciting identity.

The tip-toeing chimes, ghostly piano, whispered voices and booming symphonic organ of opener `Requiem for X' assure everything is in its right place for this Goblin, and like many of the pieces to come, the track dramatically jumps back and forth in tempo effortlessly. But even better is the up-tempo and groovy `Back in '74', powered by the Fabio's relentless chunky Chris Squire-like bass, little classy Mellotron veils, electronic glitch breakdowns and Agostino's snappy drumming, with a gorgeous classical piano break in the middle and tasty Moog runs popping in and out, all making it one of the coolest tracks to ever appear on a Goblin album! Giacomo's brooding guitar soloing burns through both `Book of Skulls' alongside slinking purring bass and spacey keyboards, and `Mysterum' with its eerie Mellotron choirs and sweeping grand symphonic synths.

More galloping Squire-esque bass brings a subtle funkiness to `Evil in the Machine', a wicked and sleek mix of cool electronics and aggressive heavy grinding guitars over slithering spoken whispers. `Forest' is a real standout, an initially ambient diversion of solemn church organ, ethereal female voices and dramatic synths orchestrations that even reminds of 70's Genesis in a few fleeting moments, and an epic soaring guitar solo over soulful sighing harmonies instantly calling to mind Pink Floyd. `Dark Bolero' is just that, an evocative gothic mix of dark acoustic guitar, groaning cello and sweeping violin that eventually picks up in tempo and bristles with danger thanks to slippery bass weaving like a hissing serpent, and the male/female chanting voices bring the band closer to fellow dark Italian prog group Il Segno del Comando. Instrumental closer `Rebirth' brings all the styles of the album together, its prickly acoustic guitars dancing around murmuring bass, looping electronics and orchestral synths that rise in rapture.

A complete rebirth of the Goblin sound may be a bit of an exaggeration, but `Goblin Rebirth' still sees this version of the band very inspired and determined to impress, and they've succeeded in creating a very confident and distinctive work. It ticks all the right boxes and will easily please faithful Goblin fans, but there's a lavish symphonic prog sound in general, with a gutsy modern edge that already shows Goblin Rebith forging their own unique dark identity. They not only compliment the other currently active Goblin bands, but they also stand apart on their own merits, and it's a triumph for lovers of the darker side of Italian prog and instrumental prog in general.

`Goblin Rebirth' deserves an easy four stars, and is a must-buy for Goblin fans worldwide, be they prog-rock or horror movie buffs!

Goblin Rebirth is a new germination of Goblin, the historic Roman prog band best known for the soundtracks of horror films such as Deep Red or Dawn of the Dead. The project was born in 2011 on the initiative of two veteran Goblin's members, Fabio Pignatelli (bass) and Agostino Marangolo (drums) and the line up was completed by Aidan Zammit (keyboards, vocoder), Danilo Cherni (keyboards) and Giacomo Anselmi (guitars). The band started performing live some pieces from Goblin's old repertoire but also managed to work on original compositions. In 2015 they finally released a brand new album on the independent label Relapse Records: it's simply entitled Goblin Rebirth and it was conceived as the soundtrack of an imaginary film whose plot is described in the liner notes. During the recording sessions the overall sound was enriched by some guests musicians such as Arnaldo Vacca (percussion), Francesco Marini (cello), Roberta Lombardini (vocals) and Dorraine Zammit Lupi (vocals) and I'm sure that Goblin's fans won't be disappointed by this work...

The excellent opener "Requiem For X" conjures up an atmosphere of mystery. According to the liner notes, it describes a scene where a strange character is observing a funeral ceremony from a hidden spot... Well, the strange character is a goblin who looks at his own final journey towards the pyre. How could it happen? He remembers...

The following "Back In 74" takes you back in time and features vintage sounds that recall Italian seventies scores full of car chases and action... According to the story-line here the protagonist begins a strange experience that drives him across space and time. He relives his childhood and early adult life, he can see all his many errors and feels that he has to follow a new way...

The dark "Book Of Skulls" describes the climbing of a mountain and the discovery, in a palace carved into the rock, of a mysterious book. The protagonist can't understand the symbols written on the pages of the book and their secret message but he puts the book in his pocket and leaves the palace...

The following "Mysterium" takes you through the labyrinth where the protagonist gets lost after leaving the palace. The atmosphere is tense and disquieting, you can feel fear and a sense of loss looming large. The protagonist feels he's being manipulated like a guinea pig in an experiment by an unknown entity...

On "Evil In The Machine" the rhythm rises and the atmosphere becomes almost unreal. The music veers to frenzied electronic soundscapes and here every now and again it reminds me of bands such as the Rockets, Kraftwerk or Alan Parsons Project. What did it happen? Well, you'll never know how, but the protagonist is now trapped into a video game and in this surreal world created by humans he meets a beautiful female goblin: short circuit! The game is over...

On the following "Forest" the rhythm calms down and we find the new formed couple in a kind of garden of Eden, surrounded by the beauty of nature. Now the atmosphere is relaxed, you can hear a church like organ and the suggestive, ethereal female vocals of the guest Roberta Lombardini while an electric guitar solo evokes a love dream on the dark side of the moon... Is this love?

The Gothic "Dark Bolero" conjures up obscure suspects, sins and betrayals. The music for a while takes you back to the time of Inquisition trying to describe a love that is falling apart, poisoned by jealousy and infidelity. Eventually the protagonist realizes that a goblin can never love and gives up: he just closes his eyes waiting for the end of his painful days on earth...

The closer "Rebirth" marks a new beginning. The protagonist awakes in a new mood, you can here exotic percussion and acoustic guitar passages while the keyboards weave the fabric of a new spiritual dimension. Mr. X is back home now and his family welcome him. He can start a new circle with a new awareness, while his nightmare slowly melts in the light of a new day...

Well, I doubt that this album will ever become the soundtrack of a real film, so all the images are up to your own fantasy that the power of music can stir, you can even elaborate a different screenplay if you like... Have a try! You can listen to the complete album on bandcamp...

GOBLIN were masters of 70s soundtrack magic creating the perfect spook-filled vibes that gracefully accompanied various film scores. The band started out as Cherry Five and wisely changed their name to the more catchy GOBLIN and by 1977 had several well selling albums to their credit. Fast forward several decades later when it seems every classic prog rock entity is giving it a go and trying to catch the new wave of 21st century progressive music and not only do we get one GOBLIN, we get SIX! That's right, since 2010 there have been several bands named New Goblin (2011-13), The Goblin Keys (2012), a new version of the original Goblin (2013 - present), Claudio Simonetti's Goblin (2014 - present), the new version of Cherry Five (2014 - present) and my favorite of all this stunning synth-laden spookfest by GOBLIN REBIRTH (2011 - present ) which contains original members Fabio Pignatelli (bass) and Agostino Marangolo (drums). Joining the team are Aidan Zammit (keyboards), Giacomo Anselmi (guitars) and Danilo Cherni (keyboards).

This team really churns out the horrific and satisfying "Exorcist" type vibes as well as some stellar symphonic heavy prog rock that playfully dishes out one churnin' groove after another with enough variation to keep my ears pricked up for the album's entirety. Pretty cool for a bunch of guys who have been around the block a few times. More often than not older prog bands only deliver a stale watered down version of yesterdecade, but none of that nonsense with GOBLIN REBIRTH. This album successfully integrates the past with the present and utilizes the most beautiful production values that current technology has to offer.

"Requiem For X" is exactly what the doctor ordered for me to get all excited about a new GOBLIN album. The cool embryonic fetus on the cover is the perfect visual representation for this newly tweaked sideshow in the greater GOBLIN universe and instantly makes me think of the movie "Rosemary's Baby" and lo and behold with the very first introductory chimes accompanied by a subdued whistle, indeed remind me of that very soundtrack that accompanies that movie. It's just similar enough to evoke the whole Devil's spawn concept but doesn't go as far as completely feeling like a ripoff and as soon as it plays itself out we get a full-on symphonic prog assault with classical piano runs dancing with moog synthesizers and hard rocking power chords on the guitar all the while rhythmically powered by a groovilicous bass line.

The soundtrack laden themes build upon one another cementing the fact that the GOBLIN sound is not only relevant to the current era but still quite electrifying as well and best of all we still get some surprises on the way. One of the biggest of these modern day developments comes with the track "Evil In The Machine" which not only delivers a seriously hard rocking groove and synth laden dark atmosphere but aspires to Kraftwerk with some dark and haunting processed robotic vocals. The track is absolutely brilliant in how it combines dungeon synth atmospheres melding with a pummeling bass and guitar attack all the while adding a detached and emotionally charged edge.

"Dark Bolero" is another treat with a pulsating cello line churning out the famous slow-tempo Spanish music form with a dark atmospheric touch and a healthy dose of a progressive rock infusion to create a stunning concoction of sonic bliss. A perfect display right here of the musicians on board each becoming a sum of the whole to make a beautiful melodic flow and once the female vocals join in reminds me a bit of something Cirque Du Soleil would incorporate into their evocative performance art.

There are really no bad tracks on here, just good and great. GOBLIN REBIRTH is a brilliant side project of one of the greatest spooky movie soundtracks artists the world has spawned and as the band themselves claim on their Bandcamp site that GOBLIN REBIRTH is very much a classic album that will thrill prog-heads and score-heads alike and sits comfortably next to the older classics "Suspira," "Profondo Rosso" and "Tenebre." And those are statements that i would totally agree with as GOBLIN REBIRTH has elements of all the previous incarnations of the band and plenty of surprises that pop out in the most unexpected ways. One of my favorites from 2015 actually.

Best to start off by getting one thing very clear. Goblin's Roller album has been a familiar friend since its vinyl landed first on my doorstep, back in 1976, initially captivated by the thundering bass playing of Fabio Pignatelli, who has never failed to be on my top bassists list. His upfront Rickenbacker sound really hooked me good on pieces like the title track which remains one of my favorite bass lines ever. Not too shabby on "Aquaman" and "Goblin" either! Now drummer Agostino Marangolo is no slouch either, the perfect foil for Pignatelli's ramblings, a rhythmic duo I found to be my all-time best in RPI, with deep respect to both Djivas/DiCioccio and Tagliapietra/DeiRossi. Goblin Rebirth is a "stunfest" of exotic Gothic-tinged progressive rock, nearly 40 years later and they still impress beyond words. Needless to say, from my historical perspective, I could not help to be glued to the rhythm section again, as the tandem still connects like frankly few others in all of rock music. With all due deference to the Simonetti Bros, Morante, Guarini, Zammit, Cherni and Anselmi, the two veterans just kick royal ass again. Better than ever, I would even daresay. Their power and their glory are impossible to evade, supremely effortless and razor-sharp, as drummer Marangolo has developed a big sound that makes him into the prog version of John Bonham (having seen the latter live, I can assure that is one hell of a compliment!).

"Requiem for X" gives me the chills, the forlorn bell peeling in the faraway landscape, rekindling memories of that first Black Sabbath album, yet swerving into a proggier, keyboard-infected groove that evokes doom, gloom and capitulation. When the crusher lumbers forward, the bass, drums, keys and guitar are all in a merciless merger, unrepentant. Phew, sweat flooding down my neck.

As if to remind everyone of the very lengthy hiatus , "Back in '74" serves as a reminder of those heady times when rock music was breaking down all sorts of stylistic boundaries, not content to just 'rock around the clock' ! Bouncy and petulant, uncharacteristically obscure and death-defying, the theme is deliberately cinematographic, as if beckoning the listener with images of times gone by, while playing the modern card, as displayed by a 'rhino in heat' guitar phrasing that rasps asymmetrically. Homage this certainly is. But wait, it gets only better!

The morose yet grandiose "Book of Skulls" is an aural steam-roller that crushes everything in its way, the duo relentless and almost gruesome in its simplicity, finding a rhythmic path that allows the marauding Giacomo Anselmi guitar to rampage appropriately, the dual keyboards in total acquiescence with some divine synth and piano work. Pignatelli likes to step out of the furrow and unleash a few spectacular runs, a true virtuoso. The theme is bombastic, dark, spectral and downright scary.

On the haunted "Mysterium", the colossal binary beat is laid down quickly, shouldered by that smouldering bass and unhinged by some of the most glorious choir mellotron ever recorded. Twinkling piano, tortured synth bubbles, crushing guitar scrapings and Agostino lifting his sticks high in the air. The mood is sombre, cinematographic and spine-chilling. This is so good, I cannot help but to nervously giggle!

I keep the cynical laughter going as Fabio does his magic right from the get go on "Evil in the Machine", a nearly electronic prog-rock piece that has an undeniable modern feel, a Kraftwerk-like vocoder voice and the most binary beat this side of Moby Dick, a bang-bang assault of concussive muscular power that is hard to fathom, the spotlight shifting firmly towards Pignatelli riffling nastily on his sweltering bass. Chris Squire, you may rest in peace, you won't be forgotten. Perfect Halloween horror movie music.

The classic prog of the 70's is reborn on "Forest", a standout palette of classic prog standards, a return to the church of prog if you will, as the sultry choir voices exalt the divine, the pompous pipe organ involved front and centre , celestial cascades of mellotron and tormented synthesizer streaks all combine to pray to the god-like guitar solo. Well-deserved winks at Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd.

Poor Maurice Ravel must be turning in his grave (an ideal place, the cemetery) , "Dark Bolero" is a neo-classical piece par excellence, with a mournful cello upfront leading the obedient violins, the drums slickly percussive, all just waiting for the reptilian Pignatelli bass to show us the way to Dante's Inferno, stormy mellotron and chanted choirs that rekindle memories of "the Omen" series of movies. Slightly satanic, breeding palpable fear and a severe sense of engulfment with danger.

"Rebirth" certainly rekindles a renaissance of this much vaunted sub genre, the voluptuous bass motivated like some 'zombiefied' monster, infested with Mellotronic pestilence, spearing forward like a Macedonian phalanx, both immovable and immortal. Or so it's seems with this long awaited rebirth. Just to hear again the duo of Pignatelli and Marangolo on this album is worth every expense. Magnificent RPI in the Goblin tradition. Easy perfection, in my book.

5 gnome revivals