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Midnight Syndicate is a 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. The band is based out of Chardon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Their music is commonly used to provide atmosphere during the Halloween season, in haunted attractions and in the role-playing game industry.
Formation
Composer/filmmaker Edward Douglas founded Midnight Syndicate in 1996. In 1997, their self-titled debut was released. A majority of music on the album was written, arranged, and performed by Edward Douglas. Contributors included Scott Angus, Mark Rakocy, Dennis Carleton, Jamie Barbour, Ray Portler, the rap act Dark Side, and Christopher Robichaud. Douglas coined the term "cine-fusion" to describe the album. Cine-fusion is described in the album's liner notes as
- "a blending of movie soundtrack music and pop music... a compilation of soundtracks to movies that do not exist. The goal of the music is to stimulate the imaginations of listeners so that they are able to transport themselves to worlds or movies of their own creation."
The album contained an eclectic blend of musical styles which included everything from dark instrumental music (three tracks which appeared on later releases) to techno, horrorbilly, rap, new age, swing, humor-pop, and space. Movie-style sound effects were employed and a multimedia show was produced to support the album.
After a recording session, drummer Scott Angus asked Douglas if he had ever thought of doing a good Halloween sound effects CD. While an all-sound effects CD wouldn’t provide the artistic expression that Douglas was looking for, the idea of focusing on exclusively dark themes seemed like a natural progression for Midnight Syndicate. Using material from the score to The Dead Matter, (a horror movie that Douglas directed and scored in 1996), the self-titled Midnight Syndicate CD, and the score to the live show, Douglas put together 20 or so songs and sketches that would form the basis for an exclusively horror-based Midnight Syndicate CD, and began to assemble a team.
In 1998, Edward Douglas approached gothic fantasy artist Joseph Vargo who suggested to Douglas they should create a Halloween CD called Born of the Night, based on Vargo's gothic artwork and story concepts. Composer Gavin Goszka, formerly a solo-artist in a project called Lore, also joined Douglas and Vargo in creating a darker sound aimed at fans of gothic music, the horror genre, and haunted attractions. Douglas and Goszka wrote and performed music on the album, while Vargo served as executive producer and creative director of the project, wrote and performed the vocals and narrations, and designed the cover art and packaging. Co-distributed through Douglas' Entity Productions and Vargo’s Monolith Graphics, Born of the Night was released in September 1998, just in time for the Halloween season. The album was Midnight Syndicate's first critically acclaimed gothic/horror soundtrack and proved to be an instant success, establishing Midnight Syndicate's trademark sound.
In March 2000, Realm of Shadows followed suit with the same flavor of dark instrumental music and another gothic setting. Again Douglas and Goszka wrote all of the music for this album while Vargo wrote and performed the opening narration and theme story. As with all future Midnight Syndicate releases, both albums were played at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights, and used in several other major theme parks during Halloween, such as Busch Gardens, Cedar Point and Thorpe Park's Fright Nights event. The heavy metal band King Diamond featured tracks from Born of the Night as opening music for their 2000 US tour. Afterwards, Midnight Syndicate and Joseph Vargo parted ways.
In 2001, Midnight Syndicate released a third gothic horror soundtrack entitled Gates of Delirium. This time Douglas and Goszka teamed up with two members who worked on the first Midnight Syndicate CD, Mark Rakocy (graphic design) and Christopher Robichaud (vocals). This particular album was a huge success on MP3.com, where it held six spots in their Top 20 positions during Halloween that year.
Midnight Syndicate called on artist Keith Parkinson to design the packaging for their fourth gothic soundtrack, Vampyre, released in 2002. The following year, the band released the first officially-licensed soundtrack to the classic roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons. Some of the tracks were later used in computer games Shadowbane and Baldur's Gate II.
In 2005, they released their seventh CD, The 13th Hour. It featured vocal effects by Lily Lane of the horror-rock band, Lazy Lane, and another cover by Keith Parkinson.
Out of the Darkness - Retrospective: 1994-1999 was released in 2006 and featured re-recorded versions of tracks from Midnight Syndicate, Born of the Night, and Realm of Shadows, along with some of Edward Douglas’ early horror film scores. Fantasy artist Rob Alexander designed the cover for this release, as well as a new cover for Gates of Delirium.
Over the course of time Midnight Syndicate has become the standard with the Halloween and haunted attraction industries. In addition to haunted attractions and amusement parks worldwide that license their music during the Halloween season, Midnight Syndicate's music has appeared in mainstream television programs like Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People of 2002, The Ellen Degeneres Show and Monday Night Football, and licensed in horror films such as Demons at the Door and Dead & Rotting.
Midnight Syndicate has also had an impact in the hobby gaming industry. In 2006, The 13th Hour won the Origins Award for Best Gaming Accessory presented by the Academy of Adventure Game Art & Design, marking the first time a role-playing soundtrack or music CD has won the award.
Midnight Syndicate's CDs are self-distributed to thousands of retailers worldwide by Entity Productions, Inc. and its partners, making them one of the largest distributors of Halloween-themed music in 2006.
Future projects
Midnight Syndicate has teamed up with Snap Kick Productions to score the upcoming horror film, Sin-Jin Smyth. Additionally they recently signed on to score Robert Kurtzman's film, The Rage. In 2006, Edward Douglas began pre-production on the horror suspense film he will be directing, The Dead Matter. Previously filmed in 1996 with a very small budget, The Dead Matter was co-written (with Tony Demci), directed, and scored by Edward Douglas. Demci and Douglas have rewritten the script for the new film.
Discography
Midnight Syndicate Discography:
- 1997: Midnight Syndicate
- 1998: Born of the Night
- 2000: Realm of Shadows
- 2001: Gates of Delirium
- 2002: Vampyre: Symphonies from the Crypt
- 2003: Dungeons & Dragons
- 2005: The 13th Hour
- 2006: Out of the Darkness (Retrospective: 1994-1999)
References
- Haunted Attraction Magazine Leonard Pickel, "Midnight Syndicate - Setting the Mood for an Industry", Haunted Attraction Magazine (Charlotte, NC), June 2006, Pg. 24-28, 38-41
- Radio Interview with Joseph Vargo, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka Station WERE 1300, Cleveland, OH., October 1998.
- Peanuts, Interview with Edward Douglas, Ohio Online Magazine, December 1998
- Radio Interview with Joseph Vargo, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka Station WERE 1300, Cleveland, OH., October 1998.
- John Soeder, "Gothic Horror Rock Featured This Weekend", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), March 2, 2000.
- Interview at Krepuskulum
- Jeff Niesel, "Soundbites", Scene Magazine (Cleveland, OH), October 14, 1999.
- Interview with Midnight Syndicate Peter Iorillo, "Something Wicked This Way Comes", Dark Realms Magazine (Cleveland, OH), Issue 1, January 2001, Pg. 20-23.]
- All Music Guide Mario Mesquita Borges, Midnight Syndicate biography
- Haunted Attraction Magazine Leonard Pickel, "Midnight Syndicate - Setting the Mood for an Industry", Haunted Attraction Magazine (Charlotte, NC), June 2006, Pg. 24-28, 38-41
- IMDB.com listing for "Demons at the Door"
- Dead & Rotting website
- The Origins Awards
- Carl E. Feather, "A little night music", Star Beacon (Ashtabula, OH), October 30, 2006, Sec. B, Pg. B1.
External Links
- Midnight Syndicate band website
- Midnight Syndicate on MySpace
- Legions of the Night fansite operated by Midnight Syndicate
- Midnight Syndicate Yahoo group
Interviews/Other References
- Horror Channel
- Flames Rising
- Scene Magazine
- Legends Magazine
- John Horton, "Scary music writers accomplish ghouls", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), October 17, 2006, Sec. Main, Pg. A1.
- Heather Adler, "Haunted Memories", Rue Morgue Magazine (Toronto, ON), October 2005, Pg. 131
- Julie E. Washington, "Haunting Tunes Are Goth Band's Specialty," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), October 30, 2000, Sec. arts, Pg. 1E
- Larry Aylward, "Music to Chill By," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), October 25, 1998, Sunday Magazine, Pg. 6