Phantasmagoria: OST by Mater Suspiria Vision, 2017 (Review)

This music album  is the official soundtrack to Cosmotropia de Xam's horror film Phantasmagoria, (2017) that is reviewed by me here. And Mater Suspiria Vision is the director's witch house band.

The band is probably the most well-known representative of the spooky, horror-themed side of the genre, and in my opinion this work, and the following Baba Yaga (2018), are the best in their discography, as well as among the most intersting albums in the whole genre of witch house music.

 

There is a bit more information about them in one of the previous articles in this blog.

Let's go deeper into details:

Perfectly kept in a single nightmarish mood across the whole lenghth, and at the same time all songs have slightly different shades of creepiness:

1) The Contaminated Photos Of Valentina Crepax feels like a very appropriate ouverture to the following spooky journey.

2) Danza Macabra (Aether Schock 1) suddenly throws you into a terrifying delirium of a demonically possessed girl. This is the only track with such a disturbing feel, and it's kept within a perfect balance.

3) Light Of Darkness (Aether Schock 2) and 4) The Garden Of Void (Aether Schock 3) are of a more dreamy and peaceful mood, but still otherworldy and relaxing.

5) Metamorfose der Bestien - return to a more serious and tense phase.

6) Phantasmagoria - a brilliant culmination. Sounds much like Pink Floyd's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", based on the same simple opening bass guitar melody of only two notes throughout the whole composition. And in this case I have not even a smallest wish to consider it as a flaw of imitation. It doesn't look like a case of lack of originality. Slow, steady beat along with dark dreamy keyboard pads and other weird sounds is keeping you in trance during 15 minutes. A lullaby of pleasant, gentle female whispers in Polish (I think it's Polish) is pointing you the way in a labyrinth of this bizarre trip.

One particular detail that I love here is the unique synthesis of classic witch house sound with the feel of 70's psychedelic rock and cheap sleazy horror scores from the same era. You can hear rock organ and other old-fashioned synthesizer sounds. If you are into the dark side of 70's you will likely notice these sweets.

As a conclusion I would say it's an excellent example of a witch house music of the highest quality. But I feel like Mater Suspiria Vision moved even beyond the borders of the genre, creating a unique piece of a perfect, fresh psychedelic music.

For those who love the film Phantasmagoria, I created this T-shirt design. Download it for free (as well as my 50 other b-movie shirt prints) and order a shirt from any print-on-demand service you like.

Links:

Buy the digital album on Mater Suspiria Vision's Bandcamp
Buy it physically in a variety of beautiful designs of CDs, cassettes, LPs
Mater Suspiria Vision on Facebook

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I created this blog for like-minded people with weird taste for unpopular, obscure, and sleazy films and music. If you feel our tastes are similar, let's be email friends. You can also reach out to me if you need help in finding any rare film or music mentioned in by blog.

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