Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 03:33, 14 February 2006

Midnight Syndicate is a US-based musical group that has been working mainly in the genre of gothic horror music since 1998. (A 1997 self-titled release covered multiple mainstream genres.) Their music is commonly used to provide atmosphere in Halloween haunted houses.

Formation

Midnight Syndicate was formed in 1996 with members consisting of Scott Angus, Edward Douglas, Jeff Kasunic, Mark Rakocy, Toni Demci, Dennis Carleton, and Christopher Robichaud. This group of college students created a self-titled debut album of experminetal and ecclectic sounds, incuding rap, country, humor-pop, and new age or neo-classical, which was released in support of a student film by Edward Douglas. The album was reffered to as "cine-fusion," described as "a blend of movie soundtrack music and pop-music, a compilation of sounds to movies that do not exist." After 1997, all of the band members except Edward Douglas seem to have gone their separate ways, as there is no further mention of them in relation to writing music for this group. In 1998, a year which proved to be the turning point for this group, Edward Douglas teamed up with a well-known gothic fantasy artist and publisher, Joseph Vargo, who stepped in as the executive producer and creative director for the band and brought Midnight Syndicate into the public eye with his concept for a classically orchestrated, theme-based gothic horror album, much like a score created for a specific film. Fellow composer Gavin Goszka also joined the group later the same year. Riding on Vargo's popularity in the gothic subculture and his success in the Halloween market, the band spent the next several years tailoring their albums to appeal to these , and report a high amount of success. Since their 1998 breakthrough album, Born of the Night, Midnight Syndicate's style of music has become popular with Halloween fans, role-play gaming campaigns, and low-budget horror films.

Continuing

Midnight Syndicate has teamed up with Warner Brothers-based Snap Kick Productions to score the upcoming horror film, Sin-Jin Smyth (in theatres October, 2006). Additionally they recently signed on to Hollywood FX legend Robert Kurtzman’s film, The Rage and will be announcing a third film score project in the next few months. Later in 2006, Edward Douglas will be returning to his film roots as a director/producer when pre-production begins on his horror suspense thriller The Dead Matter which he plans to film in Northeast Ohio.

Discography

Midnight Syndicate Discography:

• 1997: Midnight Syndicate (self-titled)
• 1998: Born of the Night
• 1999: Realm of Shadows
• 2001: Gates of Delirium
• 2002: Vampyre
• 2003: Dungeons & Dragons
• 2005: The 13th Hour

External links

• Official Site
• Interview @ Scene Magazine
• [*Scene Magazine Letters
• Interview in Dark Realms Magazine
• Interview in Legends Magazine

• American musical groups