The best thing about bands splitting up is that sometimes we end up with two for the price of one.
Led by the erstwhile Goblin rhythm section of bassist Fabio Pignatelli and drummer Agostino Marangolo, Goblin Rebirth are clearly not competing with former colleague Claudio Simonetti’s still-active incarnation of the Italian prog legends, not least because this sumptuous debut only occasionally nods towards past glories.
Ostensibly the soundtrack to a bizarre story of one goblin’s existential crisis, Goblin Rebirth has no celluloid horrors to accompany its grandiloquent drift through light and shade, but these guys are old masters at evoking potent and disturbing images with a casual flurry of melodic motifs and intuitive dynamics. The result is an authentic musical journey that breathes new life into the wheezing lungs of instrumental prog, with all the rippling Mellotron and sweeping strings that such a cinematic vision demands. The sinister undercurrent that made Suspiria and Phenomena so compelling is here too, but this is a fresh and vital threat on every level.
