Gothic (Nox Arcana album)

Last updated
Gothic
Gothic-Nox Arcana.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 20, 2015
Genre Gothic, Dark ambient, Dark wave
Label Monolith Graphics
Producer Joseph Vargo
Nox Arcana chronology
Ebonshire 2
(2014)
Gothic
(2015)
Ebonshire 3
(2015)

Gothic is the 22nd concept album by Nox Arcana. The album opens with an introductory narration, describing terms of an inheritance of an old gothic mansion called Grimstone Manor. The story described in narrative form and in the liner notes contains elements of danger and romance like that of a 19th-century Gothic novel. Musically, the album features Nox Arcana's brand of dark ambient music, with the use of pipe organ, violins, harpsichord, piano, choirs, and other instrumentation, representing a musical journey through the haunted mansion. [1] [2]

Concept album album with a theme

A concept album is an album in which its tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Sometimes the term is applied to albums considered to be of "uniform excellence" rather than an LP with an explicit musical or lyrical motif. There is no consensus among music critics as to the specific criteria for what a "concept album" is.

Nox Arcana is an American neoclassical dark wave, dark ambient musical duo of Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski, formed in 2003. Their name in Latin translates to "mysteries of the night." All of Nox Arcana's music is released independently on the Monolith Graphics label, a publishing company owned by Joseph Vargo. With their third album, Nox Arcana became a Billboard Top Ten charting artist in the holiday genre.

Gothic fiction genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance

Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story". The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. It originated in England in the second half of the 18th century where, following Walpole, it was further developed by Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford and Matthew Lewis. The genre had much success in the 19th century, as witnessed in prose by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe as well as Charles Dickens with his novella, A Christmas Carol, and in poetry in the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker's Dracula. The name Gothic, which originally referred to the Goths, and then came to mean "German", refers to the medieval Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of Romanticism was very popular throughout Europe, especially among English- and German-language writers and artists. The English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Roman Noir.

Contents

Track listing

  1. Testament — 2:07
  2. Grimstone Manor — 2:53
  3. Ashes To Ashes — 2:30
  4. Forgotten By Time — 2:53
  5. The Portrait Gallery — 2:48
  6. Into The Darkness — 3:14
  7. Familiar Haunts — 3:50
  8. The House Beyond The Graveyard — 1:01
  9. Unhallowed Halls — 3:02
  10. The Doll House — 2:31
  11. Melancholy Memories — 2:51
  12. Stir Of Shadows — 2:07
  13. Dark Realms — 2:30
  14. Beyond The Forbidden Gate — 3:07
  15. In The Blood — 3:05
  16. The Beast Within — 3:03
  17. The Black Crypt — 1:55
  18. Wake The Dead — 2:46
  19. The Others — 2:54
  20. Rise Of The Ancestors — 3:14
  21. Dark Surrender — 5:36

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References

  1. Krähenkönig, Riccardo. "Nox Arcana - Gothic (CD-Review)". Dark Music World. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  2. "Music Review : Nox Arcana - Gothic (2015)". FrightConnect.com. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.