''Symphonic Holocaust'' is the only studio album by Swedish four-piece

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

Morte Macabre Anekdoten is a Swedish progressive rock band, composed of guitarist/vocalist Nicklas Barker, cellist/keyboardist Anna Sofi Dahlberg, bassist/vocalist Jan Erik Liljeström and drummer Peter Nordins. They are notable for the use of the mellotron an ...

. It was released in October 1998 via Mellotronen. Recording sessions took place at Studio Largen in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Production was handled by the quartet themselves. Composed of eight tracks, the album consists of re-makes of instrumentals taken from the soundtracks of obscure, mostly European exploitation movies with the exception of two original compositions.

Music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

and reviewers noted the band's focus on the

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

, which was popular among progressive rock bands of the 60s and 70s. In 2004, American

horrorcore Horrorcore (also called shock rap, horror hip hop, horror rap, death hip hop, death rap, or murder rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. Its origins derived from ...

musician Necro sampled the band's version of "Apoteosi del Mistero" for his song "The Dispensation of Life and Death" off of ''

The Pre-Fix for Death ''The Pre-Fix for Death'' is the third studio album by American horrorcore musician Necro. It was released on September 21, 2004 through Psycho+Logical-Records. Production was handled by Necro himself, who also served as executive producer. It f ...

''.

Track listing

;Notes *Track 1 is a cover of the song of the same name composed by

Fabio Frizzi Fabio Frizzi (born 2 July 1951) is an Italian musician and composer. Born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists o ...

for

Lucio Fulci Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including Commedia all'italiana, comedies and spagh ...

's 1980

supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of supernatural film and horror film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...

City of the Living Dead ''City of the Living Dead'' (, also released as ''The Gates of Hell'') is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Lucio Fulci. It stars Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo de Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Gi ...

''. *Track 3 is a cover of the song of the same name composed by Fabio Frizzi for Lucio Fulci's 1981 supernatural horror film '' The Beyond''. *Track 4 is a cover of the song of the same name composed by

Krzysztof Komeda Krzysztof Trzciński (27 April 1931 – 23 April 1969), known professionally as Krzysztof Komeda, was a Polish film score composer and jazz pianist widely regarded as one of the most influential Polish jazz musicians. He is best known for writin ...

for

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

's 1968

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...

film '' Rosemary's Baby''. *Track 5 is a cover of the song of the same name composed by

Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...

for

Joe D'Amato Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres (western (genre), westerns, ''Commedia sexy all' ...

's 1979 exploitation horror film '' Beyond the Darkness''. *Track 6 is a cover of the song of the same name composed by

Riz Ortolani Riziero Ortolani (; 25 March 192623 January 2014) was an Italian composer, conductor, and orchestrator, predominantly of film scores. He scored over 200 films and television programs between 1955 and 2014, with a career spanning over fifty year ...

for

Ruggero Deodato Ruggero Deodato (; 7 May 1939 – 29 December 2022) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. His career spanned a wide-range of genres including Sword-and-sandal, peplum, Comedy film, comedy, Drama (film and television), drama, P ...

's 1980

cannibal film Cannibal films, alternatively known as the cannibal genre or the cannibal boom, are a subgenre of horror films made predominantly by Italian filmmakers during the 1970s and 1980s. This subgenre is a collection of graphically violent movies that ...

Cannibal Holocaust ''Cannibal Holocaust'' is a 1980 Italian cannibal film directed by Ruggero Deodato and written by Gianfranco Clerici. It stars Robert Kerman as Harold Monroe, an anthropologist who leads a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to locate a ...

''. *Track 7 is a cover of the song of the same name composed by Elmer Glaskow for Alan Vydra's 1983

sexploitation film A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit se ...

''Golden Girls: The Movie''.

Personnel

;

* Nicklas Berg — mellotron, Fender Rhodes electric piano, guitar, bass,

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

, sampler, producer, mixing (track 6) *

Reine Fiske Nils Reine Fiske (born 4 October 1972) is a Swedish guitarist, art director and sound engineer at the record label Subliminal Sounds, who put his signature to many prog-rock projects such as Landberk, Morte Macabre, Paatos, Motorpsycho (band), Mo ...

— mellotron, Fender Rhodes electric piano, guitar, violin, producer *

Stefan Dimle Stefan Dimle (born 7 June 1967 in Köping, Sweden) is the bass player in the progressive band Morte Macabre and a former member of Landberk and Paatos. He is the driving force in the company Mellotronen who also is the organiser of the floating ro ...

— mellotron,

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer ...

, bass, producer, mixing (track 6) * Peter Nordins — mellotron, drums, percussion, producer ;Additional *Yessica Lindkvist — voice (track 4) *Janne Hansson — waves effects (track 7), mixing (tracks: 4, 7, 8) *Roger Skogh — recording, mixing (tracks: 2, 3) *Simon Nordberg — mixing (tracks: 1, 5) *Claes Persson — mastering *David Östlund — design

References

External links

* 1998 albums Progressive rock albums by Swedish artists {{progressive-rock-album-stub