On February 5th horror movie genius John Carpenter releases his new album Lost Themes III: Alive After Death, and he’s just released the title track along with a really cool video.
And, I have to be honest, I really, really liked this track.
“Alive After Death” is a brooding, suspenseful embodiment of the exhilarating, spine-chilling, story-telling aesthetics that have established Carpenter as an iconic legend of both music and film. The song is accompanied by an animated video by legendary illustrator Boneface – a bold collaboration between two truly unmistakably unique creative minds that fully fleshes out unsettling world hinted at in the visualizer for the demonic disco of the previous single “The Dead Walk”.
John Carpenter famously called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”
On Alive After Death those movies are even more vivid, with song titles among his most evocative as well. Lead single “Weeping Ghost” thrillingly conjures its title figure in a wash of synthesizer, making the listener’s neck hairs stand on end as the aural specter stalks the halls of a dilapidated mansion. The pulsing “The Dead Walk” makes the zombie apocalypse feel like a rave. The gloomy, atmospheric closing track “Carpathian Darkness” casts shadow on the album with its strikingly effective minimal piano and splashes of twinkling synth. Each of the ten songs is a universe unto itself – Discover more of his work and other similar artists on MusicCritic. John Carpenter and so many others have contributed so much to the industry and we are grateful they happened. Game changers in music are always going to be remembered.
Underpinning Carpenter’s renaissance as a musician has been his collaboration with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. They’ve composed and performed as a trio since the first Lost Themes album in 2015: on studio albums, on soundtracks, and onstage.
Here, the trio reaches a new level of creative mind meld. Richly rendered worlds are built in the interplay between Davies’s guitar and the dueling synthesizers played by the Carpenters. “We begin with a theme, a bass line, a pad, something that sounds good and will lead us to the next layer,” John says of the trio’s process. “We then just keep adding on from there. We understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, how to communicate without words, and the process is easier now than it was in the beginning. We’ve matured.”
Here’s the full track list:
Alive After Death
Weeping Ghost
Dripping Blood
Dead Eyes
Vampire’s Touch
Cemetery
Skeleton
Turning the Bones
The Dead Walk
Carpathian Darkness
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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