HORRIBLE MONDAYS - Zoltan - Sixty Minute Zoom & Tombs of the Blind Dead

Tombs of the Blind Dead

The other night I was reading Heather Blewett's Top 25 records of 2014 on Sludgelord and I came to number 7: Death Penalty, which I hadn't heard before. It sounded great and it got me thinking "what other records did I miss from Rise Above last year?" It turns out, one of them was a 4 song EP that it so much "my thing" it's like they went through my stuff when I wasn't looking. I'm talking about the 'Tombs of the Blind Dead' EP from synth-and-drum trio Zoltan. I'd only just discovered Zoltan earlier in the year when they were recommended to me by a facebook friend. I had their 'First Stage Zoltan' album in my bandcamp wishlist for what seemed like an eternity and for an eternity it seemed destined to stay, in a limbo of forgetfulness, waiting to see what they came up with next.

And then they read my mind.

Here's what they did (from the Rise Above Records page for the EP):

London based Zoltan capture the eerie spine-chiiling [sic] terror of the decomposed ghoulish Knights Templar with this four track EP, by paying homage to the Tombs of the Blind Dead series of movies created by Spanish director Amando D’Ossorio. 

Each track relates to one of the four movies from this cult underground series, which are regarded by many as absolute highlights of the Euro Horror underground horror scene of the early 70’s. Slow motion doomed imagery comes to life in full analogue glory, making this a must for any dark minded music lovers and soundtrack collectors out there.

Sixty Minute Zoom

Looking for good horror synth music is always a hit and miss proposition because you're constantly at risk of running into dance music, which is useless to me because I don't dance. I'm a "dark minded" fellow and this EP is exactly what I'm looking for when I delve into this stuff. When you couple this EP with Bog Oak's "Phantasm Theme" cover, it (hopefully) creates a (continuing) trend of solid horror film soundtrack covers by trustworthy artists (who you know won't go all dance-y on you).

It wasn't long after that I found Zoltan's next project, a full-length album no less, their second, called 'Sixty Minute Zoom'. It was also a solid find, it may not look like it based on the bright colorful cover, but it's a bit darker overall than 'First Stage ...', though not nearly as black as 'Tombs ...' It also shucks away much of the John Carpenter influence that defined 'First Stage' and finds Zoltan doing very much their own thing. Or is that my thing ... damn mind readers. Anyway, it only just came out a month ago on bandcamp (listen on the player below). The 'Tombs' EP I found, like I do all Rise Above albums, on itunes.