Customer Reviews

Gates of Delirium

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Classical music was murdered by academics in the 20th century. But when it died, it became necessary to re-invent it.

This is a nice, largely instrumental collection arranged around the theme of a stint in a Hammer horror madhouse. Messrs. Douglas and Goszka compose some nice themes in an atmospheric style that sounds, at times, like a movie soundtrack composer's take on Chopin, Mussorgsky, or a sinister Debussy. Some of the melodies are nice enough to make you wish that, instead of giving you twenty one tracks of pop song length, they had lingered on the best of them to develop and combine them.

This record would be great to play in the background during a roleplaying session.

Of the Midnight Syndicate discs I own, this is one of my favorites. There's a lot of musical variety and some really creepy soundscape moments. The setting for this masterpiece is a haunted turn-of-the-century asylum. As is with all the Midnight Syndicate discs, the atmosphere is created through a blending of orchestral, instrumental, movie-soundtrack type music and occasional sound effects.

Although predominantly very dark and tenebrous, there are some tracks that have more of a reflective, haunting feel to them. Tracks like the title track, "Unrest in the East Wing," "Halls of Insurrection," "Welcome," and my favorite, "Alternative Therapy" are the up-tempo, sometimes frantic, on-the-edge tracks that most would associate with an operating house of madness. However, pieces like "Haverghast Asylum," "Residents Past" (also a favorite), "Ebony Shroud," and "Cage of Solitude" are slower, sometimes sinister, more haunting pieces that hint at the supernatural element of the establishment and show a different angle of the residents.

As opposed to "Born of the Night," "Vampyre," and "Realm of Shadows" where the setting and consequently the sound effects are more ghostly and otherworldly, the sound elements on this disc are more present/real-worldly. For example, you will hear actual inmates yelling, or talking, at several point on the disc in addition to an occasional ghostly murmur, howl, etc. In the tradition of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Legend of Hell House," and the asylum in "Disturbing Behavior," these soundscape elements create some especially creepy moments (especially in headphones) - on tracks like "Sleep Tight," "Dead of Night," and the cool intro piece "Arrival."

If the occasional (and it is only occasional) "human-element" to your horror discs doesn't bother you, this disc is perfect to set the mood for any dark and stormy night. A disc chock full of memorable melodies and some of my favorite Midnight Syndicate tracks to date. Excellent for Call of Cthulu roleplaying game sessions. Second only to "Born of the Night" in being the best Midnight Syndicate disc to blast out of your house during Halloween night. Close your eyes and enjoy the journey.

Listening to this muscial masterpiece as I type this, I'm astounded to find that I have never placed my review of this Incredible CD on this page and I've owned it for years.

Allow me to correct that mistake right now.

Everyone...this is one FUN FUN FUN CD!

Just listening to this music now, there is so much more freedom and artistic openness to the arrangements from the previous two CDs.
Both Born of the Night and Realm of Shadows are Awesome CDs in thier own right and ANY Midnight Syndicate fan should have them in thier collection (if they can still obtain a copy seeing that both recordings have been discontinued) but there is an *oppression* present that I can't put my finger on.
I can't explain it.
But in THIS recording...Midnight Syndicate Band Mates Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka BUST LOOSE and become the Artists that they are destined to be. This musical tour relies VERY LITTLE on sound effects and those that are there are very well and appropriately placed. Never over done...never under done. Your imagination is ALLOWED to take over and see what it wants to see...and sometimes things that you don't, but your brain takes you there anyway! lol!
The music is lush, darkly alluring and carries you through the asylum of scared, misunderstood and mistreated patients at the mercy of the facility's sadistic Dr. Haverghast! *Don't worry! you don't hear anything *BAD* but like I said, this CD-so good- your brain just takes you there!
I have never tired of this recording. It's complete "Mind Candy" and carries you away to another time.
This is why Midnight Syndicate are the Masters of the Genre that they created... Gothic Halloween CDs for the Imagination and they just keep getting better and better with time.

Now....go buy this CD and let yourself be taken away....
down the hall, dragged, screaming for your life as the metal door slams shut behind you as your helpless screams die away in the distance.....

I only own two Midnight Syndicate CD (this, and 'Realm of Shadows') and can say that this is the greater.

The music and sound effects take you through a relentless escapade through the walls of the fictional Haverghast Asylum, amongst a mass of tortured souls and insanity.
When I bought this CD, I had only the foreknowledge that it was by the same recording group as my other CD, and wanted another taste. Instead, I got a mouthful.

Once you put this album in your CD player, it will have you caught in it's snare until the last track. The haunting synthesizers, the incessant swelling laughter, the sound of cracking whips--it's all here one this spectacular collection.

The "plot," as I like to refer to it, is one patients epic into the depths of insanity, tortured by merciless wardens,and locked for eternity in Haverghast (as the head worden is heard indistinctly in the final two tracks) as "a worthwhile experiment."

The cries of the Damned beckon you--buy this CD and jounrney into the heart of sheer Madness. This album is certainly one that will leave a lasting impression on you.

Heard it, loved it, lost my mind, bought it,
--GIGI

This band came highly recommended to me by several friends, and after hearing a handful of tracks from this CD, I simply HAD to pick up a copy for myself! Right from the start, this disc just grabs hold and doesn't let go. The opening track (all sound effects) is quite impressive, especially in headphones. Some of my other faves include "Haverghast Asylum" (very beautiful in a haunting sort of way), "Gates of Delirium", "Dead of Night" (WOW!), and "Alternative Therapy". This is great stuff to listen to by candlelight while in a room alone - VERY chilling and effective!

I have collected 4 albums by Midnight Syndicate. In my opinion, this 2001 recording is the best of the four, for it musically expands from where the duo's last album left off. With a slightly higher production value, composers Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka have created a much more expressive and spastic score for the horror genre. While 2000's "Realm of Shadows" conjures an imaginative adventure endured by one hero, "Gates of Delirium" is seen through the eyes of many characters at once. Dominated by agitated violins, a grim piano, and a few cellos, this album is a one-way trip through a Victorian hell. The intended fright film is set within the claustrophobic walls of London's Haverghast Asylum, where the mentally ill are subjected to cruel and inhumane treatments. Babbling and ranting lunatics are bound in straitjackets, imprisoned against their will, and injected regular doses of poison.
This CD has quite a few sonic highlights. "Haverghast Asylum" will waltz listeners into the dank darkness of the institution, preventing anyone from ever seeing the sun. "Halls of Insurrection," with its groaning bass strings, is a twisted dance that spirals in and out of a crazed mind. In "Cage of Solitude," the harsh moonlight stares down upon a catatonic patient, who stands on his knees and gazes at the freezing floor. The sweeping "Residents Past" focuses on the doctors and surgeons who anxiously scribble in their medical journals; in an Age of Science, these educated individuals are awarded the privelege to examine and diagnose the potentially psychotic. During "Phantom Sentinels," a severe piano marches and twirls simultaneously. As for the track's scenerio, it appears as if several inmates are planning an escape, arming themselves with tools and weapons. "Gates of Delirium's" militaristic drums and feverish organ take listeners through a dingy sewer pipe; a narrow passageway a person has to crawl through with great care. In "Procession of the Damned," the drums hammer the nails on a coffin, while a spider harpsicord spins a symphonic web of charnel house fear. "Dark Discovery" injects a rush of adrenaline as the unseen characters try to flee from the laboratory, losing a sense of direction in a terrifying maze of twisting hallways. The notes of "Morbid Fascination" cartwheel off the walls and ceiling with astounding ease. The whisking, almost metallic violin strings of "Alternative Therapy" slice through the scalpel of an unlucky victim; he or she has become the tragic victim of unorthodox brain surgery. "Unrest in the East Wing" is a violent altercation between a raving madman and several staff members; as the doctors try to subdue the lunatic, he bites and claws with the cunning of a wild animal.
I happily recommend this album for anyone craving the bizarre, the mysterious, and the macabre. Purchase this one as well as 2001's "Realm of Shadows."

I run one of the top haunts in the country and when it comes to looking for music to play for the guests while they wait, there is no better soundtrack than Gates of Delirium. Not only does it give a chilling feeling, along with cool sounds, it allows my actors to blend to the music.

I discovered Midnight Syndicate quite by accident last October and was captivated; "Gates of Delirum" is the fifth CD in my collection. Anyone who is sick to death of derivative horror movie themes (and here I exclude Danny Elfman's work) will be eminently satisfied with the elegant, eerie, and evocative soundscapes created by these composers. "Gates of Delirium" feeds several morbid fascinations quite nicely by taking us directly into the crumbling ruin of an insane asylum. With its "you are there" sound effects, subtly used to great advantage, and the composers' sensitivity to climax and suspense, "Gate of Delirium" is the perfect accompaniment to the ominous shadows that overtake the world as the year draws to a close.

While Midnight Syndicate has probably done better albums ("Born of the Night" and "Symphonies from the Crypt" come to mind), they haven't done one that's any creepier! By now it's hardly a secret that while there were asylums in Queen Victoria's day (usually for the wealthy) where the inmates were treated with at least some compassion, often Victorian asylums and sanitariums were simply "snakepits", warehouses where people dumped mentally ill friends and relatives (and sometimes inconvenient spouses and children who were sane but unable to defend themselves) so they'd be out of sight and out of mind. In such places, the inmates were often treated brutally, given unsanitary food and water and virtually no medical care, and at times chained up and left there to die to free up the space for someone else.

It is this world that Midnight Syndicate has re-created, adding to their excellent Gothic music the screams, howls and meaningless babbling of the terminally mad. The result is good background music for either reading ghost stories or for the more Gothic varieties of role-playing (e.g., World of Darkness or Call of Cthulhu), as long as you don't think too much about the fact that places like Haverghast Asylum not only really existed, but were, until the early Twentieth Century, almost the norm for care of the incurably insane in some states and countries.

sends creepy shivers up my spine every time i play it... beautiful, artistic, and wicked... a must have for every one who appreciates true instrumental music...