CD: Scream in the Dark (2014)

November 8, 2014 | By

 

ScreamInTheDark_sScore: Very Good

Label: MVD Audio / Elite Entertainment

Released:  January 14, 2014

Tracks / Album Length:  10 tracks / (61:26)

Composer: Dante Tomaselli

Special Notes:  n/a

 


 

Review:

Crafted like an old-time spooky LP (Nightmare and Son of Shock! certainly come to mind), this concept album by filmmaker Dante Tomaselli features an hour’s worth of themed tracks which are largely comprised of drifting sound effects, drones, shrieks, twisting leather, grievous knife usage, and the occasional morsel of music.

The writer-director-composer often creates temp soundtracks prior to filming – this CD may well be an unofficial compendium of material from his last two films – and it’s exceptionally mastered with mostly digital sounds and assorted samples heavily processed and layered with precision timing to create a surreal soundscape that ebbs and undulates instead of startling and jabbing the listener. The downside is there’s very little music – samples, fragments, and snippets maybe, if not a few recurring bass chords – which give the CD’s final third a meandering quality, but it’s a fun evocation of grim scenarios, if not a cavernous haunted house where you have to listen and feel around to reach daylight.

Follow-up albums include The Doll (2014) and Nightmare (2015).

Note: Interviews with Dante Tomaselli from 2014 and 2007 are also available.

 

 

© 2014 Mark R. Hasan; this review originally appeared in the May 2014 issue of Rue Morgue magazine.

 


 

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Category: Soundtrack Reviews

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