Danse Macabre / Danse Macabre / Danse Macabre

Halloween is an awesome time of year. Some might say THE BEST time of year! This compilation celebrates the turning of the weather, the chilling of the air, and the darkening of the sky. Each video game and movie remix on this album was tenderly crafted with demonic love. So clutch onto your ticket, take your seat, and wait for the lights to dim. With a little luck, you'll still be alive when they come back up...

Cover art was done by FoxDragon to pay homage to CREEPSHOW

- Album notes -

01. Travis Morgan - Resident Evil Intro Full Version (Resident Evil)

  Track notes:
    The best cheese you've had since 1996.

  Credits:
    Travis Morgan - All instrumentation and production

  Source:
    From the game Biohazard / Resident Evil
    Original music by Makoto Tomozawa

02. Omigadrive - The Darker Side of Fantasy (Final Fantasy)

  Track notes:
    It's creepy and it's spooky, it won't get you no nookie, it tastes a bit like cookies... its Final Fantasy! BA NA NA NA!

  Credits:
    Glenn Elliott (Omigadrive) - Guitars and production
    Allan Cammack - Bass
    Robe Cammack - Drums
    Erik Peabody (VikingGuitar) - Acoustic and additional guitar

  Source:
    From the game Final Fantasy
    Original game music by Nobuo Uematsu

03. VikingGuitar ft. Chunkstyle - In the Mirror (Profondo Rosso/Deep Red)

  Track notes:
    Awesome music from the 1975 horror movie by Dario Argento. The main riff is so damn mysterious and haunting, and the odd time signature just makes it all the more ominous.

  Credits:
    Erik Peabody (VikingGuitar) - All instrumentation and production
    Dan Taylor (Chunkstyle) - Bass guitar

  Source:
    From the film Profondo Rosso / Deep Red
    Original music by Goblin

04. Heosphoros - Tubular Bells (Your Mother Plays NES in Hell) (The Exorcist)

  Track notes:
    Nobody expected it, nobody believed it, and nobody could stop it. The one hope, the only hope: THE NESXORCIST!

  Credits:
    Frank Martin (Heosphoros) - All tracking and original composition

  Source:
    From the film The Exorcist
    Original music by Mike Oldfield

05. Robert Curzon & Wade Matteson - The Shape (Halloween)

  Track notes:
    Halloween has one of the most recognizable and emotive musical themes of any horror movie. It is eerie, cold, and suspenseful. We were lucky enough to be the ones to get to pay homage to this classic movie and its awesome music. Not only are we fans of the music, but also huge fans of the original movies as well as the remakes done by Rob Zombie. The first sample of the gun shot in our song is taken from the Halloween 2007 remake which we thought kicked off our track very well. We wanted to have a powerful track with many twists and turns almost as if the music told of the death and destruction that Michael Meyers left in his wake. Towards the end of the track we include a sample from the original Halloween film that we thought fit perfectly to the eerie acoustic section of the outro.

    The writing process was very collaborative with Wade and I bouncing ideas off each other and molding the song in stages. Most guitar parts were written by me and the bass was written by Wade but we each had a hand in keeping ideas that we both were excited about. Wade has a great sensibility for the emotional impact and structure of key elements which were integral to the final arrangement of this track. Writing this with Wade reminded me of our writing sessions for a project we had done in the past called Head Noise which also had a dark and experimental vibe.

    Using Reaper I recorded most of the guitar and bass parts using Line 6 POD Farm. I then proceeded to use a technique called re-amping where i ran my clean guitar signal through my effects pedal through my amp and then recorded that using a Sure SM-57 mic. I really am a fan of this technique but am always looking to improve my tone! The mixing and mastering was done in Reaper using Waves plugins and various other VSTs. The drums were through EZ Drummer DFH.

    It was a lot of fun to write this track and be part of this project that is packed with some great talent and awesome people.

  Credits:
    Robert Curzon - Guitars and production
    Wade Matteson - Guitars, bass and keyboard

  Source:
    From the film series Halloween
    Original music by John Carpenter

06. Tim Yarbrough - Then There Was One (28 Days Later)

  Track notes:
    No one to my knowledge has ever done this for solo guitar, so I attempted to do so, maintaining the intensity and creepiness of the original.

  Credits:
    Tim Yarbrough - All guitar
    Erik Peabody (VikingGuitar) - Orchestration and mixing

  Source:
    From the film 28 Days Later
    Original music by John Murphy

07. Brandon Strader - Weeping Angel (Silent Hill 4)

  Track notes:
    I wanted to do more traditional doom metal than I had done before, but also do it my way.

  Credits:
    Brandon Strader - All instrumentation, vocals, and production

  Source:
    From the game Silent Hill 4
    Original game music by Akira Yamaoka

08. Stemage, Chunkstyle, Kevin Lawrence, & Norrin_Radd - Oscurità (Tenebre)

  Track notes:
    The goal of this track was to sound authentically '70s/'80s. the dry and mid-focused mix is an attempt to capture the sound of classic Goblin tracks, and we ran the final master through a tape deck with Dolby NR to give some natural warble and texture. Thanks to Disasterpeace for the idea! We tried to dub it down to tape, dub the tape, and record it back, but that was just too noisy, and we lost a little too much synth sizzle in the process.

    We don't have access to tympanis, so Kevin recorded about 8 tracks of additional percussion for the song. There's a percussion solo of sorts, but his texture is all over the track.

    Norrin_Radd added about 8 tracks of keys - from vocoder to a variety of synths. The track sounded pretty good before his layers were added, but his contribution sent it over the top. He wins Halloween.

    Chunk's bass is an experiment in delay. Chunk muted his strings using earplugs wedged under the bridge to cut notes short, and the L/R bounce technique is lifted directly from the original Goblin song.

    The screams in the track were performed by Chunkstyle's daughter, after some "coaxing". She's safe - we promise. MUAAHAHAHHA. No, she's safe, really.

  Credits:
    Grant Henry (Stemage) - Guitars & Production
    Dan Taylor (Chunkstyle) - Bass
    Kevin Lawrence - Drums
    Matt Creamer (Norrin_Radd) - Synthesizers

  Source:
    From the film Tenebre
    Original music by Goblin

09. Kirby & Cheryl Norfair - You're Not Her (Silent Hill 3)

  Track notes:
    Cheryl yells at an ex for 80 seconds while Kirby pretends to know how to play something other than metal.

  Credits:
    Mike Molnar (Kirby) - Guitars
    Cheryl Hohrein (Cheryl Norfair) - Vocals

  Source:
    From the game Silent Hill 3
    Original game music by Akira Yamaoka

10. Jameson Sutton ft. Ron Kinard - Thriller

  Credits:
    Jameson Sutton - All arrangement, instrumentation and production
    Ron Kinard - Guest fretless bass

  Source:
    Original music by Rod Temperton for Michael Jackson

11. ansgaros - Scared Much? (Are You Afraid of the Dark?)

  Track notes:
    I used to watch this show as a kid, and have always thought the ending credits song was pretty awesome. But it wasn't particularly scary. In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to make it scary and possibly haunting. Also included in my arrangement is the opening song. It just went so nicely as an intro of sorts.

  Credits:
    Anssi Jääskeläinen (ansgaros) - All instrumentation and production

  Source:
    From the TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?
    Original music by ???

12. VikingGuitar - Within (The Thing)

  Track notes:
    The theme music to "The Thing" is some of the most ominous synth music to ever grace the screen. It is so blatantly John Carpenter that it came as a big surprise to me when I found out that Carpenter *didn't* write it. He was too busy with the rest of the movie production, so he hired Ennio Morricone (who did "The Good, The Bad, & the Ugly") to do the soundtrack. Morricone tried to emulate Carpenter's style, and did a damn good job.

    The song itself captures the isolation of the movie, and that constant heartbeat reminds you of the invasive life inside. I tried to replicate that for my version, but add some of my trademark metal style.

  Credits:
    Erik Peabody (VikingGuitar) - All instrumentation and production

  Source:
    From the film The Thing
    Original music by Ennio Morricone