For those who aren't familiar with the Italian band Daemonia perhaps some historical facts are appropriate here. The band were formed by Claudio Simonetti, who used to be the composer and keyboard player of the famous Italian band Goblin. They became well-known in the prog scene for writing the soundtracks for films directed by Dario Argento. After Goblin, Simonetti started the Daemonia project with the help of young musicians of the Roman metal scene like guitarist Bruno Previtali, bassist Federico Amorosi and drummer Titta Tani. The music they perform is particularly inspired by themes of the many soundtracks of Dario Argento movies. Furthermore they use famous themes from well-known horror films. The songs on the album Dawn Of The Dead / Zombi for the first time appeared on a bonus disc for their DVD Dario Argento Tribute Live In Los Angeles (2006). People who know the albums recorded by Goblin will notice that many of these pieces taken from several Goblin albums remain in the spirit of the original versions. Only this time the heavy guitar parts make the difference. However, you could also say that every now and then the slapping on the bass guitar and the fretless bass provide these rather old seventies and eighties compositions a new sound. Obviously the many progressive sounding keyboard parts remained intact. I think the impressive church organ and choir parts throughout the album will especially be loved by the progressive rock community. All tracks are instrumental something that you can expect with music inspired by soundtracks. However, the music performed by Daemonia never gets boring and that's something which isn't always the case in this genre. The lack of a vocalist isn't a problem at all since all tracks are varied enough to keep you focussed. On many tracks people like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson have been clearly influential. Good examples are Torte In Faccia, Risveglio and Oblio. On other tracks some of the music was inspired by bands as Yes (La Caccia) and King Crimson (Oblio). Just as on the original bonus CD from 2006 this reissue contains the same three additional tracks of which the version of Bach's Toccata E Fuga is the most notable one. This classical composition, which has also been recorded by the British band Sky and the Dutch band Ekseption, has lots of metal influences and sounds rather entertaining. A reissue of an album always raises the question whether it was worthwhile releasing it again or not. Well, concerning Dawn Of The Dead / Zombi I think the answer must be positive. Many people weren't aware of the fact that this album was only available to those who bought the above-mentioned DVD in 2006! Therefore it was a wise decision to get this CD out in the shops. Progressive rock fans who like strong instrumental music based upon soundtracks of existing movies should make their way to those shops! ***+ Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
