Goblin Rebirth - Alive

Goblin Rebirth – Alive

They live! They live! Goblin are reborn – hence the name – with the original rhythm section on a fabulous live album that pumps 2,000 volts into the band’s classic instrumentals.

Recorded live in Rome in 2010, Alive can be regarded as a summation of the band’s tumultuous three decades-long career. Formed in 1975 to play the soundtrack to Dario Argento’s axe-murder horror movie Profondo Rosso, Goblin have had more line-ups than Katie Price has had failed relationships. In fact, you can at the time of writing choose from four different incarnations of the band, including Cherry Five (the band’s original name before they became Goblin – with me so far?). Over the years they have scored more than a dozen movies, including George A. Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead, and released several non-soundtrack albums.

Alive offers a good selection of tracks from the last three decades, including Profondo Rosso, Zombi (the original title of Day Of The Dead), Suspiria and the best moments from their first non-soundtrack album, 1976’s Roller.

You may think their music is likely to be fairly one-dimensional – all overwrought cod horror with liberal use of the ‘Devil’s Interval’ (E to B flat sorta thing) that Black Sabbath built a career on, but their material is far more interesting and varied than that. Sure, some of it betrays its Gothic movie roots. Profondo Rosso starts with a child la-ing a nursery rhyme tune to the sound of what appears to be someone digging their own grave, while Killer On The Train – from 2001 serial killer thriller Sleepless – opens with a carriage rattling and screeching on the tracks followed by a woman’s bloodcurdling scream.

But there’s also jazz and Canterbury music here, along with echoes of Camel, Yes and King Crimson, and some of it rocks like the very devil. Goblin, the first track on CD2, could be an out-take from Mirage or Moonmadness, while Aquaman opens with some gentle Genesis-like guitar.

Fabio Pignatelli’s huge bass carries everything along like mid-’70s Crimson’s John Wetton, helped by Agostino Marangolo’s powerful, driving drums. Guitarist Giacomo Anselmi is both lyrical and adventurous, while keyboard players Aidan Zammit and Damilo Cherni are more than capable of putting their own stamps on the music, either with washes of spooky strings or fast and furious solos. The result is an album that barely lets up from start to finish and leaves you breathless with the sheer musical bravado of it all. It’s dramatic, exuberant, darkly joyful and constantly entertaining.

Alive is a collection that will delight Goblin fans but also provides a magnificent entry point for newcomers to a band that deserves to be up there with the greats.

TRACK LISTING
CD 1

01. Killer On The Train (6:35)
02. Buio Omega (4:33)
03. Aquaman (6:03)
04. Mad Puppet (4:20)
05. Death Dies (3:16)
06. Roller (5:03)
07. Doctor Frankenstein (6:03)
08. La Chiesa (7:04)
09. Tenebre (5:06)

Time – 48:03

CD 2
10. Goblin (12:15)
11. L’Alba dei Morti Viventi (5:54)
12. Magic Thriller (5:13)
13. Le Cascate Di Viridiana (6:08)
14. Connexion (4:45)
15. Witch (2:37)
16. Suspiria (6:51)
17. Zombi (5:28)
18. Profondo Rosso (10:27)

Time – 59:38

Total Time: 107:41

MUSICIANS
Fabio Pignatelli – Bass
Agostino Marangolo – Drums
Giacomo Anselmi – Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Bouzouki
Aidan Zammit – Keyboards
Danilo Cherni – Keyboards

ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Black Widow Records
Catalogue#: BWR 182
Country of Origin: Italy
Date of Release: 6th February 2016 (re-released 2017)

LINKS
Goblin Rebirth – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp