“Patience. That IT had…in abundance! Watching, wanting, waiting for the time…then IT would feed. Then THEY would know suffering! The thought made IT smile; nothing else could. Soon, IT’s centuries of entombment would seem like a moment past. For the signs were there. The words had been spoken. The time had arrived, and no one… no THING would ever be the same!”
Straight out of Iyezine’s scorching musical inferno comes my own rave review of what’s undoubtedly one of the most fangtastic and spooktacular horror-themed soundscapes to be recorded and released in the 21st century (at least so far!).
Van Helsing’s Curse is a deafening rock and roll side project conjured by Captain Howdy himself, ex-Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider! Chanted by a choir of evil druids and played by a live 18-piece gothic orchestra (which features drummer and producer Joe Franco, viper violinist Mark Wood, keyboardist Doug Katsaros, rhythm guitar shredder Denny Cole, and beastly bassist Derek Tailer), this album is a haunting spectacle of soul-crushing symphonic heavy metal that follows the tale of an innocent child chosen by fate to close the unholy Eye of Hell forever. Putting Mister Snider’s campy narration aside, I can guarantee that fright film freaks will love this CD because of the way it flawlessly puts a new and demonic spin on Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” from “The Exorcist,” Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning “Ave Satani” from “The Omen,” and Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi’s “Black Sabbath.” In addition, “Oculus Infernum” successfully incorporates a number of classical pieces. Among those are Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” Ludwig Van Beetoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” and Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”
Although this album originally escaped from the inner sanctum known as Koch Entertainment back on October of 2003, “Oculus Infernum” has recently been re-issued by the Fangoria Musick label with slightly different cover art and two never-before-heard bonus tracks: an eerie Jack-O-Lantern version of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” and Mister Snider’s performance of “Cry Little Sister” from “The Lost Boys.”
http://waww.myspace.com/vanhelsingscurse
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