31 Days of Halloween: Recommendation #1

From time to time this month, I'll be recommending items for Halloween that I've gotten and enjoy.

The first recommendation is the newest CD by Midnight Syndicate, The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates .

This is dark orchestral music perfect for setting a creepy mood. The musicians behind Midnight Syndicate, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, create what they describe as "soundtracks for the imagination," and the music does sound like you might hear in a contemporary horror movie score, with elements of classic horror film scores as well.

I own several Midnight Syndicate CDs, and listen to them in the car, and play them at home occasionally. Or sometimes, when I'm in a mood to listen to orchestral music, I'll mix some tracks of Midnight Syndicate in with whatever else I choose.

But they get played most often at this time of year. I use them for Halloween parties and for eerie music for the trick-or-treaters who come to my door. They have quite an effect!
The music on Cemetery Gates is tied in with an upcoming independent movie titled The Dead Matter, which concerns ancient Egyptian occult relics, vampires, and the living dead (and directed by Edward Douglas.) Those elements influenced the motifs heard in the music recorded for CD, which is not a soundtrack album, though three bonus tracks from the movie are included. The music compositions presented are original compositions created solely for Cemetery Gates. My favorite tracks were Nightfall (effective stark use of solo piano), the title track Cemetery Gates (has a dreamy quality; also made me think of a dirge in waltz time), Alchemist's Chamber (I'm a sucker for it's use of organ and harpsichord) and Exodus (eerie blend of strident strings and cymbals.) You can hear excerpts by clicking here.

I found Midnight Syndicate CDs on a display stand at a local Party City; you can find them at Hot Topic and other stores. (Including internet outlets like Amazon; a list of online retailers can be found at this page.

Above: Musicians of the macabre, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka.


For this Halloween, The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates is the CD for conjuring phantoms of the mind's eye. Buy it. Your imagination will be inspired and haunted by it.

To see a trailer for the The Dead Matter movie, click here (where you can enter a contest to win a trip to the premiere) or watch it at YouTube.