CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN: THE DEVIL IS BACK

If I remember correctly my first exposure to Goblin was on the soundtrack album The Church, which I listened to only because of the tracks by Keith Emerson on it. The Goblin tracks did not impress me much on that occasion as they seemed to function mostly like transportation between the more interesting Emerson tracks. Goblin is mostly known for their movie sound tracks (for horror movies in particular) a genre of music that usually does little for me.

Fast forward to today, I stumbled on this 2019 album by a version of Goblin called "Claudio Simonetti's Goblin" and I was impressed. What we have here is a very nice instrumental album of symphonic progressive rock album with elements of electronica, jazz fusion, and heavy rock/metal. The focal point is Claudio Simonetti's powerful keyboard work, which incidentally reminds a bit of the aforementioned god Keith Emerson. The rest of the band is strong too with distinct bass lines, powerful drumming, and heavy guitar.

The cover art references Goblin's 1976 album Roller which is one of the few by them that I have actually heard. After hearing this excellent album, I will certainly dig deeper as I found myself enjoying The Devil Is Back a lot and I am a bit surprised that it has not received any previous reviews.

Highly recommended