{"id":29758,"date":"2013-05-27T07:42:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T12:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=29758"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:35:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:35:41","slug":"john-5-griffin-boice-the-lords-of-salem-soundtrack-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/john-5-griffin-boice-the-lords-of-salem-soundtrack-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"John 5 & Griffin Boice | The Lords of Salem Soundtrack<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"LordsIt takes guts and a certain kind of resourcefulness to compose for horror films. They say tapping into the dark side always comes back to haunt you, but for true explorers an opportunity to learn more about human nature is stronger than fear. Not the first guitar hero to write a soundtrack for a horror movie, on this release John 5 continues the lofty tradition of some of the most inventive and ballsy musicians in rock: Jimmy Page, Trent Reznor, Buckethead, Thomas Bangalter, and Ron Thal, to name a few. <\/p>\n

What John 5 cooked up for Rob Zombie\u2019s film Lords of Salem<\/em> (released last year) may not be as abstract or avant-garde as Page\u2019s benchmark work composed in the early Seventies for Kenneth Anger\u2019s classic \u201cLucifer Rising\u201d. But it surely is just as remote from John\u2019s trademark guitar fury as Page\u2019s experimental soundtrack was from the grandiosity of Led Zeppelin. You never know what scoring a horror film is going to bring out in a certain musician, although the outcome almost always fetches unexpected results. And this is precisely what we get here. <\/p>\n

All six tracks written for the film by John 5 (and co-credited to producer Griffin Boice as fellow composer and performer) seldom run over two minutes. But what they lack in length, they sure make up for in atmospherics. Here John 5 abandons his trademark heavy metal guitar marathons played at 1000 miles per hour and instead chooses sparse instrumentation, falling back on his note-perfect knowledge of the dark things that reside beyond the surface of our everyday realities. Ostinato acoustic guitar, minimalist keyboard, and occasional eerie noises are driven by transparent melodies that chill you with cinematic poignancy.<\/p>\n

Standout \u201cThree Sisters\u201d rings out with music-box simplicity straight out of childhood memories, but a shadow of an irreparable, old and staying tragedy veils this spellbound tune like a decaying burial sheet. The simple theme drips \u2013 tear-like \u2013 with haunted notes, washed over by ghostly strings, wiping out our habitual perceptions with its soft but lethal breath. What it reveals \u2013 just like all intelligent horror, be it in music or in visual arts \u2013 is our collective shadow, archaic and unexplored. The separation of our inner light and our inner darkness \u2013 parts of ourselves that forever remain mutually oblivious \u2013 has never been laid bare by John 5 so compellingly before. <\/p>\n

The Velvet Underground\u2019s super hits \u201cVenus in Furs\u201d and \u201cAll Tomorrow\u2019s Parties\u201d \u2013 also included into this CD \u2013 sound even more unsettling next to John\u2019s exquisite nightmare. Prog anthems \u201cBlinded by the Light\u201d by Manfred Mann\u2019s Earth Band and Rush\u2019s \u201cThe Spirit of Radio\u201d don\u2019t stay immune to the surrounding proceedings either. You end up feeling unsafe listening to those feel-good energizers on this CD, and keep suspecting that the creeping unease of the neighboring tracks can invade the safest of your inner refuges \u2013 a proposition not so far-fetched and delivered with edged depth by Rob Zombie\u2019s visionary axe-man and psychopomp. <\/p>\n

Genre: Rock<\/p>\n

Music composed and performed by John 5 and Griffin Boice<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1. Open Wide the Gates (spoken word)
\n2. The Curse of Margaret Morgan \u2013 John 5 & Griffin Boice
\n3. Blinded by the Light \u2013 Manfred Mann\u2019s Earth Band
\n4. No Person in Number Five (spoken word)
\n5. A Special Child \u2013 John 5 & Griffin Boice
\n6. Our Philosophy (spoken word)
\n7. Crushing the Ritual \u2013 Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent
\n8. Give It to Me Baby \u2013 Rick James
\n9. Ladies Choice (spoken word)
\n10. The Spirit of Radio \u2013 Rush
\n11. Smash or Trash (spoken word)
\n12. The Lords Theme \u2013 John 5 and Griffin Boice
\n13. Salem Rocks (spoken word)
\n14. Venus in Furs \u2013 The Velvet Underground
\n15. Three Sisters \u2013 John 5 & Griffin Boice
\n16. You Know What I Think? (spoken word)
\n17. I\u2019ll Always Know \u2013 John 5 & Griffin Boice
\n18. Apartment Five \u2013 John 5 & Griffin Boice
\n19. Lord Hear Us (spoken word)
\n20. All Tomorrow\u2019s Parties \u2013 The Velvet Underground
\n21. WIQZ News (spoken word)<\/p>\n

Label: Universal Music Enterprises<\/p>\n

Online: www.lordsofsalem.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 10\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai – Senior Columnist — It takes guts and a certain kind of resourcefulness to compose for horror films. They say tapping into the dark side always comes back to haunt you, but […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,49,334,514,7610],"class_list":{"0":"post-29758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-john-5","10":"tag-review","11":"tag-rob-zombie","12":"tag-universal-music-enterprises"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}