Marbin - Goat Man and the House of the Dead

Now the title of Marbin’s sixth album, sounds like something Hunter S. Thompson could have used during one of his chapters either in Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 or in one of his essays, The Great Shark Hunt. But then, I begin to realize it sounds like one of those double features as a Grindhouse during those drive-in cinemas of the late ‘60s, early ‘70s.

Released in 2016 on the MoonJune label, they see themselves as if they were scoring a film set in the Spaghetti Western-era in Italy filled with an epic adventure that would have given the folks at Disney, the big giant middle finger on how a real western should be done instead of a singing princess in a frozen castle by letting it go.

They did the same thing on a track called Breaking the Cycle from Last Day of Dreaming released in 2013. And listening to Goat Man and the House of the Dead twice now, Marbin pays nod to the legendary filmmakers of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. The music captures some of the late ‘60s vibe by tipping their hats to Ennio Morricone and most of the time it’s showing how a real spaghetti western score should be done in the right way.

You can almost feel the essence of Uma Thurman’s character The Bride from the Kill Bill series returning for one last fight before returning to being a mother again on Goatman. This time it’s vengeance and Marbin’s nod to the Man with no Name and the Bride as if they teamed up together for a final showdown who have wronged both of them and ending to the sunset in black and white.

I love how in Whiskey Chaser that there’s a Malaguena riff intro that Dani does as jiracek’s galloping section on his drums before it transforms itself into a Surf sound reminiscing the late ‘50s/early ‘60s nod to The Ventures and Dick Dale with an intensive paced/speed-driven arrangement. But then Carnival comes along. There is this ominous/moody atmosphere that Rabin and Markovitch do as if they are driving into a ghost town.

You can feel the pins dropping at any moment by going into the abandoned locations as Dani’s guitar has these clean tones that sounds almost like Tony Iommi during Planet Caravan. It feels like an aftermath of the bloody aftermath of gunfight that had happened for the first 3 minutes and 12 seconds. It then changes into gear between the guitar and bass ready for another duel at the O.K. corral as if the Man with No Name isn’t done yet.

Markovitch comes in for another dualistic melody between him and Dani. Markovitch takes some of the middle-eastern vibes to follow pursuit between Rabin and Nadel by going in the lead. Not to mention some of the Coltrane improve he does on the sax. The last three minutes heads back for one last view of the dead as Rabin drives off into another sunset for the night to come down.

Goat Man and the House of the Dead, what a killer title. Again it sounds like a Giallo Spaghetti Western that Lucio Fulci could have used by collaborating with Dario Argento, is a very interesting release that Marbin released two years ago. But it shows the cinematic vibes they brought on here and the futuristic setting as if an Italian Horror Western film was made in the late ‘70s would have been the perfect choice for the movie inside your head.