Goblin Rebirth
Alive

The Goblin are a legendary name in the history of Italian music: born as a prog group, they were initially called Oliver and their only album—very keyboard-heavy as was fashionable at the time—was released under the name Cherry Five. They were later discovered and launched by Dario Argento with the soundtrack of Deep Red, initially entrusted to jazz musician Giorgio Gaslini after the director had unsuccessfully tried to involve Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. Argento wanted to make a big splash and was looking for something rock and powerful, and finally turned to them: it was a fantastic collaboration and many of his subsequent films—like the masterpiece Suspiria—seem to "come to life" also thanks to the music of the Goblin. The celebrated theme of Deep Red was composed with Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells in mind, which had achieved great success as a soundtrack for the film “The Exorcist”. Unfortunately, in recent years there have been several disputes around the name Goblin with numerous lineup changes and iterations, making it difficult to keep track to the point that there seems to be as many as four variations currently. Claudio Simonetti continues his project Claudio Simonetti's Goblin while the subject of this review is a live double CD released by the commendable Black Widow under the name Goblin Rebirth and titled Goblin Rebirth Alive, featuring, from the original lineup, the great bassist Fabio Pignatelli and drummer Agostino Marangolo, alongside Adam Zammit and Danilo Cherni on keyboards, and Giacomo Anselmi on guitar and bouzouki. In the 2 CDs, all the old classics from their repertoire are revisited—now part of the collective imagination of horror movie followers and beyond—including “Deep Red,” “Suspiria,” “Zombi,” “The Church,” and “Tenebre,” “Aquaman” and “Roller” (the last two taken from one of their best albums, Roller). Goblin Rebirth Alive is also available in a limited edition vinyl in different colors, on DVD, and in a special box set.